My deceased Dad was a Korean War vet. His widow, my Mom is home bound due to a stroke. Is she eligible?

Google VA facilities in Philly, contact their Eligibility Department and ask what you need to do to find out if she's eligible.

Or contact Philly city offices and ask if they have a Veteran's service that helps people get VA benefits. These facilities are free to Veterans and will prepare the necessary papers as well as offer advice on whether or not you might qualified.

Another alternative is to contact local VFW or American Legion offices and ask if they, or another of their offices locally, help Vets and spouses qualify for aid. They're knowledgeable and have staff who can help vets and their families.

But under no circumstances hire anyone, attorney or otherwise, to help you get qualified, as you can get the services for free from the organizations listed above. It's also illegal to charge for this service.

How old is your mother? There may be an age requirement, and there may be other qualifications that could get help earlier, such as blindness, or legally blind.

Hi,
Thank you for your help. My mother will be 82 on this coming Friday, October 18th.

Pearla, it's because there are so many variables in applying for and getting VA assistance that I eventually decided to enlist the assistance of someone who knew the requirements more than I ever could. And I'm glad I did. It was so much easier than downloading forms, muddling through, filing, waiting, calling, waiting....

It's isn't just someone's age; it's the service of the veteran, when, whether there were injuries and potential service connected disabilities, and a lot of other issues.

Garden Artist,
Who and where did you find the person that you enlisted to assist you in helping you?

One requirement would be that the veteran would have served at least one day in active duty during an officially declared war. Even if the veteran saw no combat, they would still qualify, as well as their spouse.

Your father was a Korean War veteran, that must qualify him. Gather up some documents, such as the DD214 Discharge paper, their marriage license. Start there.

When my mother passed away, we didn't know if Dad was a veteran. We knew he served in the military but didn't know if he qualified. So, older sis decided to just check - in case. She went to our local Veteran's Affairs office. They already had my dad's name listed as a veteran. Therefore, mom was buried in the Veteran's cemetery for free. When dad passes, he will be buried with her.

Are you able to look in the phone book - either federal or local listing - for Veteran's Affairs office (or something similar.) By the way, Dad was in the Korean War. He told stories of how he got out of the swimming test. He can't swim. If I recall, when it came to the swimming exercises, he was in the kitchen doing 'something' duty. I just realized that I never really paid attention to his stories. Too late, with his senility, he now confabulates his life story.

Check the VA website, www.benefits.va.gov/pension/spousepen.asp spousal benefits-if her cost of care exceeds her monthly income/ investments she should receive aid and attendance if home bound, and yes you can get paid for taking care of her-reasonably- or hire outside help but she must be home bound and-need help with activities of daily living.Make sure you have a contract or the care provider does showing the amounts you pay.Do you live in her home?The website will have the forms, explain them and often go over many things you may have forgotten....rx's, insurance, incontinent care, food, rent, deductibles,transportation, etc..... good place to start to see if she qualifies! DO NOT go on the straight answer-as I was told for many years-if she make over $2,000 a month or has assets of $2,000 she will not qualify...not true! I paid the difference of several thousand dollars a month for years because the VA rep kept telling me no, there our good ones and bad ones.. You will need all her monthly/annual expenses, costs etc...to prove the costs.Good luck!

K.P. duty.

Sounds like she should be eligible, unless she has significant assets. Yes, visit the VA website www.va.org and search for your local veteran services office. Get there as soon as you can and file a letter of intent, because if she is approved, the payments will be retroactive to the date you filed the letter. I had a great rep, and because of his help and my penchant for gathering paperwork, we had my mom approved in 4 months, and getting paid in 6 months. You don't have to have all of the papers in at once, but if you don't, there's a better chance they will lose something, and if you do there's a better chance you'll get a rapid approval. Best of luck.

they have an official form now to file but either way

Pearla, I'm so sorry that I didn't respond to your question on where we found help. I honestly didn't even see that post until the subsequent posts showed on my News feed subscription of threads on which I've previously posted that have updated responses.

We found the local county office probably through brochures that I had picked up over the years, perhaps at the Area Agency on Aging annual expo, perhaps at the local Senior Center or its annual expo. I'm not sure. But then I also googled our county to check out what this office did.

This is its website, and provides an example of what a county office can do to assist veterans.

https://www.oakgov.com/veterans

My father had previously been qualified over a decade ago and was receiving health care benefits, but we decided to discontinue and stick with the private sector after:

(a) the VA primary care doctor changed a cardiac med without consulting my father's private cardiologist, who advised to ignore the VA doctors' change and stay on the cardiologist's choice of medicines.

We were stuck paying for 3 months of meds the VA sent, wouldn't take back and for which it wouldn't issue a credit. Then it charged interest on the unpaid bill while I battled them arguing that the med was not consistent with our private cardiologist's recommendation.

(b) The VA had major security breaches of thousand of veteran's records.

That was enough. We withdrew, but reconsidered several years later when Dad needed a new hearing aid. I got conflicting information from the VA on how to either re-apply, renew, or start all over again. So, I decided I might have to swallow my pride thinking I could handle all this, and decided to ask for help.

The Oakland County Veteran's services prepared all the forms and electronically sent them to the American Legion, which took it from there. It took less time than I had spent waiting on hold to speak with VA representatives.

We never had to do anything more until the VA contacted us directly and asked for additional information, which I supplied.

Dad reapplied for health benefits but also applied for service connected disability.


I did some checking for you. Here are some VA offices you can contact for this kind of assistance (and remember that it's totally free):

Philadelphia Veterans’ Advisory Commission:
http://www.phila.gov/veterans/Pages/default.aspx

I get the impression that this Commission doesn't really prepare the benefits forms, but it's worth a call as they may also be able to direct you to a city or state office that does.

PA Department of Military and Veteran’s Affairs:
http://www.dmva.pa.gov/Pages/default.aspx#.ViJs5TZdEfg

There are also some good links with more general information on both of these sites.

If you need additional help, either post here again or just PM me.

I should add as a reminder that I've read it's illegal for anyone to charge for assisting with applying for these benefits. There are a variety of for profit "veterans' services" that will try to recruit people who aren't familiar with their operations.

If you check out any of the brochures and their websites, if there's a "dot com" (.com) in the URL, they're for profit, and you'll end up providing them with information that they can use to sell you financial products. So go with the governmental agencies, or contact the American Legion (which handled Dad's) or the VFW directly and ask them which of their local offices handle assistance with qualification for benefits.

Good luck!

that's what we did as well