Mom should qualify for Aid and Attendance. Should I try on my own or pay $1900 to have VA Accredited Representative assist?

DO NOT PAY ANYBODY for any services. These are Veteran's programs and all are free. The catch is, getting ALL the paperwork correct. DO NOT ATTEMPT THE PAPERWORK BY YOURSELF! Contact your local VSO, Veterans Service Officer. They are salaried positions paid by your respective state's veterans office thru the governor's office. Learn from my mistake: I used our family lawyer (retired military JAG with VA approved Aid & Attendance training) and after 18 months of trading forms back and forth, he directed me to meet him at the Springfield, MO VSO office. 5 minutes after he left the meeting, the VSO slid his stack of files into the trash can, pulled out 4 blank forms, and assisted me in completing them. He mailed them that day and within 3 weeks, I was approved. Direct deposit checks started 3 months later. Since both parents have Alzheimer's, that's $2.080.00 each month-

Thank you everyone for your responses. I am going to contact Veterans Angels and Elder Benefits Consulting. It is overwhelming without any help. P,us I don't want to ness up.

We are working with elderbenefitsconsulting and they are quite helpful. First you will need discharge papers, marriage certificates and bank statements. Plus death cert. and divorce cert. if there is more than one marriage.

No! Don't pay anyone any money to do this for you! If there is a VA office anywhere near you, visit that office. Someone will help you at no charge. Go to the Veteran's Administration website and contact them. They should be able to give you an answer to your question about funds. I haven't visited the site in a while but I think they may have online forms you can input your information into to give you a better idea of what your Mom might be entitled to.

Was your Dad retired military by any chance? If you are near a military base, and your Mom has privileges there, you should be able to visit the casualty office and find out more information, or even call. My Dad passed away from Lewy Body Dementia about a month ago. He was retired military. When my Mom and I visited the casualty office at our local AFB the person there filled out and electronically submitted ALL of the VA forms in case Mom qualifies for benefits of any kind. We didn't even bring the matter up because we didn't figure any benefits of that type would be available.

No one should be charging you to do this!

Contact Veteran's Angels, Inc. They are WONDERFUL and at no cost to you.

Financial consultants are not allowed to charge to help you fill out the forms. It is a violation of US law.

Absolutely not! There are organizations that assist with getting A&A at no cost!

While I'm looking for the name of the organization we consulted with (two real estate or insurance brokers who've made it their mission to assist people with application process at no cost because it's the right thing to do), try veteranaid.org. I'll post again if/when I find the other site - it might be vaaidandattendance.com.

One of the things that stuck with me from the seminar we attended was that having an organization back your application moves it along faster. If nothing else, your state VA organization should be able to help you review the application.