VA Aid and Attendance in Colorado (2026)

In Colorado, a wartime veteran with a spouse who needs daily help with tasks like bathing or dressing can receive up to $2,874 a month in 2026 through VA Aid and Attendance. It's a federal pension benefit for wartime veterans and their surviving spouses, and one of the most underused: many Colorado families who qualify never apply because they don't know it exists.1

This guide walks through who qualifies, how much you can receive, how to apply, and where to get free help filing in Colorado, including from the Colorado Division of Veterans Affairs and your county veterans service office.

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• What Is Aid and Attendance?
• Do You Qualify?
• 2026 VA Aid and Attendance Rates in Colorado
• The Net Worth Limit and 3-Year Lookback
• How to Apply for VA Aid and Attendance in Colorado
• Free Help in Colorado: The Division of Veterans Affairs and County Service Offices
• How Aid and Attendance Works with Health First Colorado
• Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Aid and Attendance?

Aid and Attendance (A&A) is an enhanced VA pension benefit for wartime veterans and their surviving spouses who need help with everyday activities. It isn't a separate program. It's the same VA pension paid at a higher maximum rate when you need regular care, so the Aid and Attendance figure sets the maximum for the whole pension rather than adding a separate amount to the basic rate.1

You may qualify if you need help with daily activities such as:

• Bathing or showering
• Dressing and undressing
• Eating or preparing meals
• Using the toilet
• Adjusting prosthetic devices
• Protecting yourself from everyday hazards

You can also qualify if you're bedridden, live in a nursing home due to mental or physical incapacity, or have severely limited eyesight (even with glasses or contacts, 5/200 or less in both eyes, or a visual field narrowed to 5 degrees or less).2

A&A is paid to the veteran or surviving spouse as monthly income, and the money can go toward any purpose, including in-home care, assisted living, or nursing home costs. That flexibility is part of what makes it so useful for Colorado families piecing together long-term care.

Do You Qualify?

To receive Aid and Attendance, the veteran must not have received a dishonorable discharge, and you have to meet all four of these requirements.2

1. Wartime service. The VA lists three service paths. Veterans who started on active duty before September 8, 1980 must have served at least 90 days of active duty with at least one day during a recognized wartime period. Veterans who started on active duty as an enlisted person after September 7, 1980 generally need at least 24 months of active duty (with some exceptions), or the full period they were called or ordered to active duty, again with at least one day during wartime. Veterans who started on active duty as an officer after October 16, 1981 qualify under a third path if they had not previously served on active duty for at least 24 months. Qualifying wartime periods include World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War, which the VA treats as ongoing and which covers post-9/11 service.2

2. Age or disability. The veteran must meet at least one of the VA's four alternatives: be 65 or older; have a permanent and total disability; be a patient in a nursing home for long-term care because of a disability; or be getting Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income. Any one of the four satisfies this test on its own, so a wartime veteran under 65 who receives SSI qualifies without an adjudicated permanent-and-total rating.

3. Need for assistance. The veteran or surviving spouse must need regular help with daily activities, be bedridden, be in a nursing home, or have severely limited eyesight as described above.

4. Net worth under $163,699. This is the 2026 limit. It counts your and your dependents' assets plus your annual income for VA purposes combined. Your primary home, your car, and basic home items don't count.1

Surviving spouses qualify too. If the veteran has passed away and the surviving spouse needs help with daily activities, they can apply for the Survivors Pension with Aid and Attendance, which has a 2026 maximum of $18,697 a year for a surviving spouse with no dependents.1

2026 VA Aid and Attendance Rates in Colorado

The VA calculates your payment as the difference between your countable income and the Maximum Annual Pension Rate (MAPR) for your category. The MAPR is a ceiling, not a payment: you receive the MAPR minus your countable income. These rates are federal, so they're the same in Colorado as anywhere else. The VA publishes them as annual maximums, and under 38 CFR 3.273 it works out the monthly payment by subtracting your countable income from the annual rate and dividing what's left by 12.1

Here's how the math works, using a hypothetical example. If a veteran with a spouse has $12,000 in annual countable income and qualifies for A&A, the VA pays the difference: $34,488 minus $12,000 leaves $22,488 a year, which the VA pays in monthly installments.1 Unreimbursed medical expenses, including what you pay for care, reduce your countable income and so raise your benefit, but only the amount above 5% of your MAPR counts: $1,141 for a veteran with one dependent and $872 for a veteran with no spouse or child in 2026.1

The Net Worth Limit and 3-Year Lookback

The 2026 net worth limit is $163,699. This combines your and your dependents' assets (savings, investments, and property other than your home) with your annual income for VA purposes, which is your income after unreimbursed medical expenses are subtracted, not your gross income.1

What counts: bank accounts, stocks, bonds, investment property, IRAs, and other financial assets, plus your annual income for VA purposes.

What doesn't count: your primary residence, your car, and basic home items. The house you live in doesn't push you over the limit, which matters for the many Colorado veterans who own their homes outright but live on a modest fixed income. That home is worth a second look on the tax side too, because Colorado exempts qualifying disabled veterans from part of the property tax on their primary residence under a separate set of rules; see our guide to Colorado's disabled veteran property tax exemption.

The 3-Year Lookback Rule

The VA reviews any assets you transferred for less than fair market value in the three years before the VA receives your claim.2 If you gave away or sold assets below market value to get under the net worth limit, the VA may impose a penalty period of up to five years during which you won't receive pension benefits. Putting money into an annuity, a trust, or another investment that lowers your net worth also counts as a transfer for less than fair market value, unless you can cash out the whole balance for your own use, in which case VA counts it as net worth.2

This rule exists to stop people from simply giving away savings to qualify. If you're thinking about transferring assets, talk to a VA-accredited attorney or an elder law attorney first. The penalty can be steep, so it's worth getting advice before you move money.

How to Apply for VA Aid and Attendance in Colorado

These steps are the pension route: the VA's condition for this benefit is that you may be eligible if you get a VA pension. The route takes two forms and a medical exam, plus an optional intent-to-file form that can protect your effective date.3

Documents to Gather First

• DD-214 (discharge papers) showing wartime service dates
• Medical records documenting the need for daily help
• Income documentation (Social Security and pension statements)
• Asset information (bank and investment statements)
• Marriage certificate, if claiming as a veteran with a spouse
• Death certificate, if applying as a surviving spouse

Free Help in Colorado: The Division of Veterans Affairs and County Service Offices

You don't have to file this claim alone. Free help is available in every Colorado county.4

The Colorado Division of Veterans Affairs

The Colorado Division of Veterans Affairs is the state body that points veterans toward claims help. On its claims page, which covers appointments and claims for disability, benefits, survivors benefits or pension, the Division strongly recommends that anyone considering requesting services or submitting an application to the VA contact their County Veterans Service Office.4 The Division doesn't decide your VA claim itself; the federal VA does that.

County Veterans Service Offices

Every county in Colorado has a veterans service office that offers free assistance to veterans, and its Service Officers specialize in assisting veterans, and their family members, with claims, applications, and appeals to the VA.4 A county veterans service officer can help you put the claim together, gather the supporting evidence, and stay with you through the process, all at no cost to you. Because they handle Aid and Attendance claims regularly, they know the documentation the VA looks for and can help you avoid the gaps that delay a decision.

Colorado's State Veterans Homes

Colorado also runs five state Veterans Community Living Centers, administered by the Colorado Department of Human Services: Fitzsimons in Aurora, the Bruce McCandless center in Florence, Homelake in Monte Vista, a center in Rifle, and the Spanish Peaks center in Walsenburg.5 Across the five, the department describes skilled nursing, Medicare-certified short-term rehabilitation, specialized memory and dementia care, and end-of-life comfort care. Assisted living is not offered system-wide: the department describes assisted living-like services in 48 renovated cottages at the Homelake center in Monte Vista only. On eligibility, CDHS says "Honorably discharged veterans, veterans' spouses or widows, and Gold-Star parents are eligible for long-term care or short-term rehabilitation in our homes. Medical criteria also must be met." The National Association of State Veterans Homes directory entry for Colorado states the discharge test more broadly: "Veterans in need of skilled nursing care and who have a general/honorable military discharge are given admission priority." It adds that "Spouses, surviving spouses and Gold-star parents in need of skilled nursing care are also eligible for admission." A veteran holding a general discharge should therefore ask rather than rule themselves out, and medical criteria still apply, so veteran status alone is not admission. On the bill, that same NASVH entry says "VA, Medicaid, Medicare and private pay resources are accepted."5 An A&A award is paid as monthly income the family can put toward care costs wherever the veteran lives; for what one of these centers charges, contact CDHS or the center directly.

Note that these are two different state agencies: the living centers are run by the Department of Human Services, while claims help comes from your county veterans service office, which the Division of Veterans Affairs points you to. If you need help with an Aid and Attendance claim, start with your county service office.

Colorado's Veteran Population

The VA's National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics puts Colorado's veteran population at 357,904 for fiscal year 2025 in its FY2025 State Summary for Colorado, down from 362,908 in fiscal year 2024, out of 17,587,676 veterans nationally.6 These are modelled projections rather than an enumerated head count: they come from VA's VetPop2023 model, which takes the best available veteran data at the end of fiscal year 2023 as its base and projects forward to fiscal year 2053, together with the VBA Annual Benefits Report. The U.S. Census Bureau measures the same population separately and reports a lower figure, 342,276 Colorado veterans in its 2020-2024 American Community Survey estimate, and it cautions that estimates from different sources are not comparable. So treat each number as its publisher's estimate for its own period rather than an exact count.6 With that many veterans, it's worth contacting your county service office early rather than waiting until a care crisis forces the issue.

A word of caution: be wary of companies that charge fees to help with VA claims. Your county veterans service office offers free assistance with claims, applications, and appeals, and a Veterans Service Organization like the VFW, American Legion, or DAV can help as well.

How Aid and Attendance Works with Health First Colorado

Aid and Attendance and Health First Colorado (Colorado's Medicaid program, administered by the Department of Health Care Policy & Financing) are run separately, under different rules. A veteran may be able to receive both at the same time, but the two programs count money differently, so a few points are worth understanding.2

• The Aid and Attendance portion isn't counted at the Health First Colorado eligibility step. Colorado's Medicaid rule, 10 CCR 2505-10 § 8.100.5.K, says the Aid and Attendance and Unusual Medical Expenses portion of a VA pension, as the VA determines it, is not counted as income when determining eligibility. That matches the federal SSI rule Colorado applies at that step, under which VA aid and attendance allowances are not income.2
• The two programs cover different things. A&A can pay for costs Medicaid often doesn't, such as room and board in assisted living, while Medicaid may cover the care services themselves and long-term nursing care.
• How VA income affects Medicaid is governed by Medicaid rules. How that VA income is treated for Health First Colorado eligibility and your long-term-care cost-share (patient liability) depends on Medicaid rules rather than VA rules.2
• Eligibility is only the first step. For someone in a medical institution or an intermediate care facility, federal rules require that income disregarded in determining eligibility be considered in the post-eligibility process that reduces Medicaid's payment to the institution, with the agency deducting specified amounts in a specified order, beginning with a personal needs allowance.2
• Outside a State Veterans Home, the A&A portion isn't used as patient payment. Colorado's same rule says the Aid and Attendance and Unusual Medical Expenses portion is not used as patient payment to the facility for a veteran or surviving spouse in a medical facility other than a State Veterans Home, or in a State Veterans Home with dependents. The exception is a veteran or surviving spouse with no dependents in a State Veterans Home: there, that portion is used as patient payment. Colorado sets a $90-a-month personal needs allowance for a veteran in long-term care with no spouse or dependent child who receives a non-service-connected VA pension, and for a veteran's widow or widower with no dependent children.2
• Medicaid nursing-facility coverage can shrink the pension itself. Under federal law (38 U.S.C. 5503(d)), a veteran with no spouse or child, or a surviving spouse with no child, whose nursing facility care is covered by Medicaid may be paid no more than $90 a month in VA pension after the month of admission. A veteran with a spouse or child is outside that cap, and a State home where the VA pays a per diem for nursing home care is excluded from it, so check a particular stay with an accredited Veteran Service Officer.2
• Timing and coordination matter. Because the exact treatment is fact-specific, confirm the interaction with a county veterans service officer, Health First Colorado, or an accredited benefits counselor. Do not assume either that the two stack at full value or that one cancels the other.2

For the bigger picture of how planning ahead can protect savings while qualifying for care, start with our guide to Medicaid planning strategies.

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The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.