Rates for VA Compensation, a.k.a. Disability

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

The following podcast is by Mr Jim Koewler, elder law and special needs attorney, helping and protecting those who need long term care. And Welcome back everyone to answers for Alder’s Radio Network. Is We are here with Jim Kaylor talking about V A, veterans administration, Friends Affairs, Compensation and Um. This is something that’s really I’m learning all about right now. And for those of you that are listening to the radio, um or you know, maybe by by podcast on any sort of the podcast channels, Um, make sure you check us out on Youtube because there is a corresponding Um powerpoint presentation that Jim is showing us right now. Is He is talking and it really helps to lay things out and certainly we can certainly follow along very easily just by listening. But I invite you to go to answers for elders on YouTube and type in Jim Kaylor Ko e w l e R. And what’s that? It’s spelled just like it sounds. Yeah, right, so, Jim, welcome back and Um we’re talking about compensation. Yes, we are. So we were in the middle of a slide where we talked about we’ve already mentioned in the prior session. Service connected and a rating on how disabled is the veteran. But I need to point out, as we’ve mentioned this a couple of times, I want to make sure they hit this last point. For v a compensation there is no requirement that the veterans served during a time of war. This is different than the VA pension program what most people call eight in attendance. Okay, but the V A pension program had to be during a time designated time of war. For v a compensation there is no such requirement. Okay, so that is a big E y. There are some people who are for both va compensation and va pension and there’s some people who are for compensation only, even though they have a disability and they now have healthcare costs higher than uh, their income, which is a pension test. But they didn’t serve during the time of a war, so pension is not available to them. So they can but they can’t get compensation. So now I mentioned in the the end of the last session that compensation rating go ratings and go from zero to a hundred, but by tense. So basically goes zero, zero to ten by one look at it that way. So there’s ten categories. There there’s eleven levels of disability. Zero percent, you’re not disabled, but you have you have something connected to your time in the service. That is some injury or illness, but it hasn’t yet made you to say it. But you’ve got the servant, you’ve got the injury or illness and it has been shown to be connected to your time in the service. That’s zero percent. Okay, Um, and the money that goes with these different percentages definitely connects to the percentage of disability. Okay, years ago, I off top of my head, I remember how many years ago, but before I started practicing, which I mean at least sixteen, Um practicing this form of law. Um, your disability income depended on your rank when you got out of the military rather than how disabled you were. So sometime in the past that got changed and now it is how disabled argue. Just as a point of reference, the highest UH disability rating for a single veteran yields for two thousand, twenty two, three thousand dollars and six cents a month. Thirty three, thirty two point zero six, point zero six per month at a percent disability for a single veteran, for married veteran. It’s thirty five seventeen point eight four three thousand five d seventeen dollars and four cents per month is not ten percent off of that. Is Not off of that. It follows US weird for those who know math, I think of the curve almost like a logarithm. Starts out a little slow, big steep client and then you get near the top and it kind of flattens out. Uh. It definitely increases from increases from eight to ninety, but it’s not as big an increase as, say, from fifty right in the middle of this range. It’s kind of weird, um, but I mean the numbers are what they are and the rating is what it is. The rating can be appealed, but I didn’t mean to move that slide. The rating can be appealed, but the the money that goes to the rating cannot be appealed. It simply gets adjusted every December one with the cost of living agust. I don’t know Why v a does December one. Good for them. It’s not during the holidays and they’re always like right around, but sometimes higher than the soil security cost of living, like a tenth of a percent higher okay, um. So v a compensation rates go up faster than the cost of living adjustments with soil security. The pension rates too, by the way. Okay. And then the special monthly compensation that goes on top of pension for them and sorry, on top of compensation. So special monthly compensation on top of regular compensation. I wish they hadn’t used compensation twice, but they did. Okay. So this is the potential of eight intendance or house bound. So you may not be able to get uh, you may not be able to get out and have activity of living, but maybe you can get out that. While that is a pension animal, it occasionally rears its head with compensation because the case workers at the V A who do pension also do compensation. I think they sometimes get their own concepts mixed up and if it yields more money, shut up and take it. Okay, Um. But that special monthy conversation rate varies and all this depends on and I’m motioning at the slides. I didn’t help people not see what I’m looking at, Um, but how much money and how much special with the compensation comes really depends on the disability rating. So that zero to. I can really see the need for an elder law attorney that knows how to position this Um to rally on an advocate on behalf of someone, because they don’t necessarily know how to answer these questions Um, you know, in the most effective way right. And the thing is you won’t find many out of law attorneys doing this kind of work because they can’t get paid for it. None is allowed to ask for money to help with a V A application, but they can charge on an appeal. So if someone so. That’s why in Ohio and other states that have this model, where our veteran service commission is very important, because the the employees of the Veteran Service Commission, and I think all of them that are veteran service officers, happened, at least in Ohio, also or veterans. So they make a point of hiring veterans there. Okay, but all of them are paid by the county there on salary. So while they get paid making your quotes to do these applications, they aren’t paid on an application by application basis. It’s simply their vocation and they may do an application for a compensation for somebody and then the next afternoon they’re doing a pension application and then the next afternoon they’re finding some county money to build some veteran or ramp on his or her front porch so they can get it out with a wheelchair or whitened doors or things like that. Okay, so they do all sorts of things for veterans and families, but help with activitally, help with applications for the benefits is very important. The next one might be va benefits for a flag for the casket at the veteran’s funeral or three hundred bucks, I think that’s the number, but pretty close to that, for a veteran’s burial plot. Okay, so they do. The Veteran Service Commission in Ohio and whatever other states have that same sort of service. They do all sorts of veterans benefits, not just these that are money related to health issues. Okay. So, uh, it is a great service and but there. But if there, if it gets screwed up like that one I mentioned. It was actually a veteran service commission that mentioned that old Um trust that that could benefit the applicant but was tied up in a way. It was like a special needs trust. All almost you can’t get at it without the trustees saying so. But it was still counted because the veteran service commission mentioned it. Big Mistake that after a notice of disagreement an appeal can be taken and the person helping with an appeal, assuming they were accredited, can get a piece of the action. Usually about but anything higher than can be possible. But you have to make a special petition for the extra on top of the twenty. I do twenty when I do these. I don’t do them very often but I just do the standard twenty. So for surviving spouses, the company maximum compensation right is fourteen, thirty seven and sixty six a month for the surviving spouse, but this would be underdependent and a donated compensation. Plus another three or five a month at the veteran was totally disabled service connected for eight years. So this is after the veteran’s death. You can’t get both the IC and for the family and regular compensation for the the Um for the veteran because Ford a demi compensation veteran has to have passed away. Um if they are minor children, another three and six months for two years after the veteran’s death, plus three sixteen a month for each minor child, Um, and then another three sixteen a month if the spouse qualifies for eight in attendance, and then this is healthflectus day they’re living, or once a month of the spouse is house bound. Remember, this is another special monthly conversation. I mentioned it before. You do see it very often, but sometimes it steaks through and these are just like, just like the compensation rates are due to change on December one. By the way, we use it on here. On December one. We usually here by December seven and then back date they but knowing before December one. Happens occasionally, but not usually. We atuallyast have to wait a day or two or Upti a week. So that is all I wish to cover with the V A compensation right now. Um, I hope that we’re going to go into long term care right after this. Is that a long term care services? Well, you know, this is very interesting. Just a real quick question on compensation. Um, you mentioned something about the fact that Um, you know the Veterans Affairs Office. It’s it’s like do elder law attorneys. How do you find an elder law attorney that can help qualify the V A has an online list of accredited agents. Perfect. They’re not attorneys and accredited attorneys perfect. So just google that V a accreditation. You should be able to find the list varied somewhere on some page under the V A office of general accounts, because these are all monitored by the General Council office, meaning the head lawyer for the B A u. You can find a list online. Perfect and everyone. We’re going to talk about long term care right after that. Jim and I movie Gat State of Ohio residents, you have a friend to help you navigate long term care while protecting your assets. You can reach Jim at www dot protecting seniors dot com, or just email him at J K O E W L E R Pyphen a F e. that’s J Kaylor a F E at protecting seniors dot com.