Senior Living Today
Welcome to The Ohio Masonic Communities' podcast Senior Living Today! In this podcast, we will be discussing all aspects of senior living. From debunking myths about senior living to caregiving tips and health and wellness advice for seniors, we are here to answer all of your questions, and what life is like at our communities. We are excited to share our expertise on a variety of senior living topics, with a new podcast every two weeks. We will have a wide variety of guests ranging from experts in the field to those living their best life in one of our communities.
Senior Living Today
Retirement for Veterans: Maximizing VA Benefits for Care
Are you a veteran or spouse worried about paying for long-term care? Get the most out of your VA benefits so you can afford the care you need and deserve.
Even if you’ve planned for retirement, assisted living, skilled nursing care, and at-home care can be expensive. With VA programs like pension, aid and attendance, housebound allowance, and compensation, the care you or your spouse needs can become more affordable.
Talk to a representative from your local Veterans Affairs office or Veterans Service office to make sure you’re maximizing your retirement benefits. They can help you understand what services you are eligible for, connect you with other resources in the community, and make navigating application processes easier for you.
It’s never too late to start planning and saving for retirement, but the earlier you start the better. The military even has financial planners available to you if you’re still serving. Be sure to take advantage of the benefits available to you while you’re active duty and as a veteran so you can afford to retire when you want.
In Ohio? You can find your local county Veteran Service office here: https://dvs.ohio.gov/what-we-do/find-a-cvso
(music) Hi everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Senior Living Today. With me today is David Mitchell. David was in the United States Navy and upon his separation, he attained the rank of petty officer, third class. David, thank you so much for joining me today. And thanks for having me. Before we dive into our episode, would you mind telling our listeners a little bit about yourself, your career in the military and what you do today? My name is David Mitchell. I am born and bred in Springfield, Ohio. I am married, four children and three grandchildren. I've been with Clark County for 25 years, eight of those years being with the Veterans Service Commission. Well, David, I think you're going to be the perfect guest for today's episode. Because we're going to talk about retirement planning for veterans. So I really would like to start with asking the question of when should they start that process? Should someone wait until they're ready to retire to start planning, or should that be thought about beforehand? Planning for retirement should be started as soon as you possibly can. In the beginning, a lot of us are younger. We have to live check to check. Once you are able to start planning for retirement is when you should actually start planning for your retirement. The sooner you do, the more you have and the more setup you will be towards the end of your career, whether it's military or you get out of the service and you work a normal job, but you need to start planning as soon as you possibly can. And who should be involved in that process? Definitely your family. If you know any financial people, you should be able to talk to them and have them help you out. A lot of people, myself personally, my grandfather was a whiz with money, so he actually helped me get started on my path and showed me the direction to go. So people you know, different things, financial advisors, your family. But family is definitely number one as far as starting to plan your retirement, financial future. And I think too, in this process it's probably important to set some goals. So what does that look like and what steps can someone take to make sure they're meeting their retirement goals? Patience is definitely one of them. It seems like Murphy's Law does take over sometimes when you're starting to plan and save and things happen, but you got to be sound in what you need done and what you want to get the goal that you want to get to for your retirement, and for any future planning that you have. You have to be ready for the other things to happen, but one thing you can’t do is touch that financial goal and the stuff you put aside for your retirement when you do retire. And I think another big question that comes up is where should someone go for financial advice when planning for their retirement? Believe it or not, in the service, in the military, there are financial planners to help you do that. If you can't find one in the service where you're at, banks, different financial organizations, volunteer organizations are out there. And just anybody that you trust that, you know, has a decent, financial plan for themselves and their work in their plan can definitely help you out with those. And then lastly, I want to touch on why is retirement planning so important. Why should we start, you know, thinking about this now rather than waiting until the point that you are ready to retire? Nobody wants to work forever, and you have to have a plan in place to get to the point where you don't have to work anymore unless you choose to work. But nobody wants to work forever. And the sooner you start, the easier it's going to be in the end when you do plan to retire. So next thing I want to talk about some of the resources and benefits that are there to help veterans with retirement. And if they choose to move to a senior living community. So these could include VA pensions and Aid and Attendance and state veterans homes. Understanding the eligibility requirements for these programs and gathering the necessary documentation can kind of help ease the transition process into a senior living community and help to reduce costs along the way. So I want to dive into each of these. Can we start with pension? Can you explain that for our listeners and how it is computed? Yes. Pension is an income based program by the VA that if you're eligible under their guidelines, you can they can help pay for your...help help you pay for your stay in a facility if you need to go to one, or even if you have home health care coming in, their pension can help pay for those things. It is income based. The income standards are not very high. So one thing I would recommend to anybody is go to your local Veterans Service Commission office and do the paperwork, or at least look at all the guidelines that are there. There are several guidelines that show if you can or if you're eligible for it or not. And if you're over certain income you won't be eligible for it. But a lot of times the stays in the facilities are so expensive, the majority of our veterans that apply for pension are eligible for the program just because of the price of everything these days. That sounds like a great program that's available to veterans if they are looking to move to a senior living community. Can we now talk about Aid and Attendance? How does that work for veterans? Yes, Aid and Attendance is is part of the pension program. But Aid and Attendance is basically the highest level of pension that you can get. And that usually only occurs when you are in a facility. And that would be assisted living or higher. Independent living does not count. It doesn't qualify. But anything that's assisted living or higher does count. And the majority of our clients are eligible for Aid and Attendance due to the fact of, once again, the price of everything. And then can you share with our listeners a bit about the eligibility requirements for these programs? Yes, I can. You have to be a wartime veteran to qualify or the spouse of a wartime veteran. You have to be making under$2,350 a month. For surviving spouse you have to be making under$1,515 a month. Have to be a wartime veteran, and you have to have proof from a medical professional that you are in need of Aid and Attendance program. And is there an application process for this? There is. There are several VA forms that have to be filled out, have to be filled out by your doctor, have to be filled out by a facility and have to be filled out by the veterans spouse, or come to our facility and we can help you fill out those the paperwork for you. You have to have proof of all income that you have coming in, any assets that you have. And generally assets that you have to qualify have to be under $156,000. And the VA does not count your home or a vehicle. And if you have a home that is over three acres, then it can be sold off. In part they will count that, but if it's under that, they will not count your home or your vehicle. And what does the application process look like? Is it a long application? How are benefits paid out? Can you talk a little bit about those pieces? The application process, it can be it is pretty lengthy at times. It is several forms that have to go to the VA from the veteran or the spouse or surviving spouse of the veteran. They have to go through. And the process is usually 6 to 8 months from start to finish. Wow. So probably a good idea to apply as soon as possible. It is. It really is. Once a person, if if they get approved to go to a facility, then once, as soon as you get approved, you sign the contract to go to a facility, that would probably be the best time to start filling out the paperwork to get this started, because until it is approved, everything will be paid out of pocket by the veteran or surviving spouse. So now that we've talked about some of the resources that are there for veterans, I'd like to talk about some of the benefits of senior living communities for veterans. So we talked a little bit about the benefits such as, you know, the VA programs like Aid and Attendance, for financial assistance, with care cost, and then access to specialized health care for military related conditions and programs like the veterans directed home and community based services offering flexible care budgets. These benefits can cover expenses in assisted living, skilled nursing communities or at home, as you also mentioned. And they provide support for activities of daily living, medical care and therapy for eligible veterans and their spouses. So let's start with talking about financial assistance. What is VA Aid and Attendance benefit? If you're in assisted living or whatever, the most that the VA is going to pay out will be 2000 If it's a single veteran, $2358 for a veteran. The problem with that is, let's say you're making $2000 a month on your own. The VA is literally going to pay the 358 to bring you up to the $2358 mark. So it's not on top of what you have is going to bring you up to that point. So for a lot of ours, the money that they have and what we give, the VA gives, it doesn't cover everything. So unfortunately a lot of our people end up going to Medicaid which will pay everything. And if you end up on Medicaid, the VA will give you $90 a month, which is your money for whatever you want to do with it. So it does help. It's not the greatest program, but it's what we have. So we try to get everybody approved. So they're taken care of as much they can be through the VA slash the government. And then what about the VA Housebound Allowance. What should our listeners know about this benefit. Housebound is for a veteran it's $1,727. For a surviving spouse, it's $1,159. So basically that is if you have a preexisting condition or something that you can't leave your house as much as you would like to or possibly do. Housebound, that would be the Housebound income limits. And it's basically for you're not at the level where you need to be in a facility as of yet, but you're still needing to help or have to pay somebody to come in and help you with certain things that you do around the house. And then another program I want to talk about is the Veterans Directed Home and Community Based Services. Can you explain this program to our listeners? Home base is basically they will send somebody to your home to help you with your daily, daily living needs if you're still in your house. Usually that is set up by your primary care physician through the VA. So just like writing a script, they will write for somebody to come in and help you with your daily needs, whether it's light cleaning, cooking, medic, some of your medical care as far as setting up meds, if you have wounds, changing wound dressings and just different things like that, that they will send somebody to help you out at your house. But once again, it's set up by your primary care physician that you need. You're in need of that. And that's how that program works. As far as being set up for it. And then another benefit that we have is the VA Disability Compensation, which is a tax free benefit for service connected disabilities that can help cover senior care needs. Can you talk a little bit about that benefit and what it entails? Yes, compensation. So basically pension is an income based program. Compensation is not income based. So you can be the richest person out there. But if you have the injuries that they can prove or caused by service or injuries that were preexisting before service, but that were made worse by your service, you'll get paid a compensation check, or you'll get paid compensation monthly for the benefit. And it can be rated anywhere from 0% disabling, to that we know you have it, but it's not really affecting your everyday life. To 100% disabling, showing that it pretty much takes over your whole life and you're not able to really do anything because of that injury. And then some of the care that is available in senior communities for veteran residents, one of those would be specialized medical care and the other is integrated care. Can you talk a little bit about those. In a VA facility they, I mean, it's just like any other facility where you have the specialist and everything else that start, you know, they they, you know, know how to work with the veterans or in the facility. That's what their specialty is. Just like any other facility or hospital, you have the people there to help you actually have a better quality of life. And hopefully some of them that are in facilities can actually get them back to their homes. And then we have long term care services as well. What services does the VA offer for long term care? In VA facilities, the long term care, there's three places that the veterans can go to. One is in Georgetown, Ohio. The other one is Sandusky. And now they've opened a new long term care in Dayton, Ohio. So it's just like being in any other facility, skilled care facility where the doctors, nurses, the aides, everybody's there to help the person throughout their day and get through everything and take care of them while they're in the long term facilities. So, David, what's your favorite part about your job? Um, my favorite part about the job is working with veterans, because we are a very small group of the population. And to work with my fellow veteran brothers and sisters is the ultimate job for me. Well, we've covered a lot of information today. David, as we wrap up, is there anything else that you would like our veteran listeners to know as they start to plan for their retirement? Plan for retirement if you start as early as you possibly can, but also know that there are different things that as far as our office, we offer, there's financial assistance if you need help with certain bills. There are different things that we're we trained for, which is mostly VA that we're really knowledgeable about. So if you do have questions or need to know if you qualify for something or just need to sit down and talk, call our office, schedule an appointment. Come in and see us. And there's all kinds other people out there, including the ones that we're talking to now that know veterans that can, you know, set you up and help you out as much as they can and if not, send you to us. We will definitely find out the answers for you. And we're we're definitely here to help our veteran brothers and sisters. Well, David, I appreciate your time today and for our listeners we’ll be sure to share some of those resources in the description for this episode so that you can reference back to those, but you shared a lot of great advice and tips for veterans who are starting to plan their retirement. So thank you so much again for joining me. Thank you for having me. For our listeners, as always, be sure to like and subscribe to the Senior Living Today podcast so that you never miss a new episode. And we will be back again in two weeks.(music)
