Veteren's Benefits

[Guest guest]

On another board I'm on - a member wrote the following - maybe it

would be useful to you (received his permission to cut/paste) - he

lives in Alabama...

" Instead of whining about my ordeal at least I can offer some help

maybe on getting Veterans benefits.

1. You have to have their military discharge record, for me that was

a DD 214, which could not get because of the fire at the

military records center, BUT after going through the request

procedures he did get an official equivalent and that is all the VA

office will need. You HAVE to have this or they won't even talk to

you but they will help you in getting it.

2.The veteran HAS to sign their form applying for benefits, they will

not take a POA, they can even sign an X or a mark if it is

witnessed, but it has to be signed by the veteran.

3. Be prepared to provide a death certificate if the spouse or

veteran is deceased, social security benefit statements, and a lot of

other paperwork.

4.The care facility must sign the form with their costs and just

about every place we talked to has all the forms you will need. Of

course they do, they want the money any way they can get it.

5. You can fill the forms out in advance but you can not submitt them

until the veteran is IN the facility.

6. We were told it would take from 60 days to 6 months, but the

benefits are retro-active, meaning you'll get paid back to the time

it was submitted if approved.

7. The money will go directly to the veteran/guardian, etc. as they

can not give it to the care facility from what they told me, or the

facility would be considered a government sponsored facility, at

least that is what we were told. They said it would be direct

deposited into his bank account and we had to provide a deposit slip.

8. You have to report any income changes to the VA office.

9. Every time you move the veteran to another facility you have to re-

apply.

Just a few things to note and of course don't take what I say as

gospel, this is just what we experienced.

We were told he would PROBABLY get around $1400.00 per month.

"