Veteran Affairs (VA) provides many benefits and services to veterans, their survivors and families.  At the state level, New York has its own Department of Veterans Affairs agency that offers additional services to veterans.  There is no official connection between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the state agency.  However, understanding the variety of federal benefits and services available to the elderly or disabled veteran requires understanding the basic function of both entities, as follows:

• VA benefits are federal benefits and are provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

•     The New York Department of Veterans Affairs, through its various County Veterans Services Offices, provides information and assistance to New York State veterans seeking to procure federal VA benefits.
        
Federal Benefits

A veteran or family member may qualify for: (1) VA cash assistance; (2) medical care; and (3) other benefits.  The information below focuses primarily on the “cash assistance” programs available to the elderly or disabled veteran or family member.  In this respect,  Connected Compensation Benefits and Non-service Connected Disability Pension.

Service Connected Compensation:  This is one of the most widely known VA cash assistance programs.  The fact that it is so widely known is one of the reasons many veterans don’t know about, or misunderstand, other cash assistance programs that may be available to them.  Service Connected Compensation benefits are paid to veterans who have a disability (or disabilities) incurred or aggravated during active military service.  Based upon the degree or scope of the disability, the veteran’s disability is rated in multiples of 10%, ranging from 0% to 100%.  The amount of compensation paid depends upon the rating assigned.  Unlike Non-service Connected Disability Pension benefits (discussed below), Service Connected Compensation is paid without regard to financial need.

Qualifying for Service Connected Compensation benefits is easier when the veteran has specific disabilities.  Certain presumptions exist where only evidence of the current disability and evidence of qualification for the presumption needs to be presented.  Consequently, if the veteran provides medical support to show that he/she has an existing disability that relates to his/her military services, then he/she has met the presumption.  A few of the categories to which the presumption for qualification applies are: (1) veterans with certain chronic diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension developed during military service, or shortly after discharge; (2) veterans exposed to certain herbicide agents in the Republic of Vietnam during military service and who have such ailments as Hodgkin’s Disease, diabetes and certain cancers, among others; and (3) veterans who served in Southwest Asia during the Persian Gulf War and who became disabled with undiagnosed disabilities or chronic multi-symptom illnesses.

In general, veterans who have incurred a disability, or have aggravated a disability during active military service are well aware of their compensation benefits under this program of assistance.  However, they also need to be aware that veterans may file a claim for an increased rating if the condition worsens or request a secondary service connected condition for disabilities that are due to a service connected condition.  Any increase in the disability rating is an increase in compensation.  For example, a veteran who is rated 10% for hypertension but who later suffers a stroke as a result, may request a secondary service connected condition for the stroke, thereby increasing the disability rating and amount of compensation paid.   Also, additional compensation may be available to veterans who are housebound or who are in need of “Aid & Attendance” as a result of their service connected disabilities, when such disabilities cause the veteran to be confined to his/her home or require the regular aid and attendance of another person.  This is known as Special Monthly Compensation (SMC) and can greatly increase the amount of compensation received by the veteran.  Finally, if a veteran has a disability rating of 70%, or can likely increase his rating to 70% by filing a claim, VA medical care benefits become accessible, such as payment toward nursing home care, which eliminate the need for other programs of government assistance, such as Medicaid.  If a veteran has one or more service connected disabilities, then a new claim should be filed or the veteran should request an increased rating where the circumstances indicate potential eligibility.

Finally, Service Connected Compensation benefits are counted as income for determining eligibility for, and the amount of, benefits payable by needs-based governmental programs, such as Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, Food Stamps, and federally assisted housing.

Non-service Connected Disability Pension:  Non-service Connected Disability Pension benefits, in contrast to Service Connected known due to the widespread belief that the veteran must have been injured during military service to receive benefits.  Very few of the thousands of elderly and disabled veterans who have served during wartime are aware of these benefits.  Consequently, very few elderly and disabled veterans receive these cash assistance benefits which could help keep them in their home and help them afford the cost of an assisted living facility, or minimize the erosion of assets that results from the extraordinary high cost of nursing home care.