VA Aid and Attendance for In-Home Care in Kansas

VA Aid and Attendance can help pay for in-home care in Kansas, turning a monthly VA pension into real money toward an aide, a homemaker, or a family caregiver. If your loved one is a wartime veteran who needs help with daily activities, this benefit can cover a meaningful share of the cost of staying at home. The hard part is usually knowing it exists and how to claim it.

This guide walks through what in-home care costs in Kansas, how much Aid and Attendance pays, how your care costs can actually help you qualify, and where to get free help applying.

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• How Much In-Home Care Costs in Kansas
• How Aid and Attendance Helps Pay for In-Home Care
• How In-Home Care Costs Lower Your Countable Income for Aid and Attendance in Kansas
• Who Qualifies
• Using Aid and Attendance to Pay a Family Caregiver
• How Aid and Attendance Works with Kansas Medicaid
• How to Apply and Get Free Help
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

How Much In-Home Care Costs in Kansas

In-home care lets a loved one stay at home, but the bills add up fast. In the 2025 CareScout survey, the former homemaker and home health aide categories merged into a single "non-medical caregiver" line, and the Kansas median for it is about $34 an hour, or roughly $77,220 a year at 44 hours of care a week for 52 weeks. CareScout reports a 5% rise for this line, but 2025 is the first year the two categories were merged, so that change is not a like-for-like comparison.2 That is just under the $35 national median. Skilled nursing at home is priced separately: a Kansas private duty nurse runs about $67 an hour, or $138 a visit. These are industry-survey medians collected at the metropolitan-area level, not government figures, and costs vary across the state and rise as care needs grow.

For many Kansas families, that is more than a fixed retirement income can absorb on its own. This is where Aid and Attendance comes in.

How VA Aid and Attendance Helps Pay for In-Home Care in Kansas

Aid and Attendance is an increased monthly VA pension for wartime veterans and surviving spouses who need help with everyday activities.3 Federal law exempts VA benefit payments from taxation, so the pension arrives tax-free.4 Because it is a monthly payment rather than a service, the family can put it toward a home health aide, a homemaker, or a family caregiver.3

The VA publishes these ceilings as annual amounts, and each additional dependent adds $2,984 a year. Pension is paid monthly, and federal regulations set the conversion: the VA subtracts countable income from the annual rate, divides what is left by 12, and rounds down to the whole dollar.1

Each figure is a ceiling, not a check. The VA pays the difference between the household's income for VA purposes and the Maximum Annual Pension Rate, which is the maximum amount of pension payable, so a household with countable income is awarded less than the table shows.1 At the top of the range, $29,093 a year for a veteran with no dependents covers a meaningful share of the roughly $77,220 a year that in-home care runs in Kansas at 44 hours a week, and a household awarded less than the ceiling covers a correspondingly smaller share.1,2 It does not have to cover the whole bill to be worth claiming, and the next section explains why a Kansas care bill often pushes the award back toward that ceiling.

How In-Home Care Costs Lower Your Countable Income for Aid and Attendance in Kansas

VA Pension, including the Aid and Attendance increase, is needs-based: to be eligible, the veteran's yearly family income and net worth must meet limits set by Congress.1 Because the benefit is keyed to the income the VA counts, lowering that income is what opens the door.

Here is the part families miss: unreimbursed medical expenses, including in-home care, lower the income the VA counts. You can only deduct the portion of those expenses that exceeds 5% of your applicable MAPR. As the VA puts it, "If you have medical expenses, you may deduct only the amount that's above 5% of your MAPR amount ($872 for a Veteran with no spouse or child)."1 That floor rises if you have dependents, but it never includes the Aid and Attendance or housebound increase.1

One condition applies specifically to care at home: the attendant must be a health care provider, unless the person needs aid and attendance or is housebound, or a physician, physician assistant, certified nurse practitioner, or clinical nurse specialist states in writing that, because of a physical, mental, developmental, or cognitive disorder, the person requires the health care or custodial care the in-home attendant provides.1

Think of it in annual terms. If a veteran with no spouse or child pays for in-home care, only the first $872 of that yearly cost is not deductible. Everything above that floor reduces countable income. With non-medical in-home care running about $77,220 a year in Kansas at 44 hours a week,2 those costs can wipe out most or all of a veteran's countable income, which is exactly how someone whose income looked too high ends up qualifying.1

Who Qualifies

To be eligible for Aid and Attendance, the veteran must:3

• Meet the wartime service rule: a veteran who started active duty before September 8, 1980 needs at least 90 days of active duty with at least one day during a wartime period, while an enlisted veteran who started after September 7, 1980 needs at least 24 months or the full period they were called or ordered to serve (with some exceptions), again with at least one wartime day. The VA lists a separate rule for officers who started after October 16, 1981.3
• Not have received a dishonorable discharge3
• Meet at least one of four age or disability tests: 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 the test on its own, so a wartime veteran under 65 who receives SSI meets this requirement without any adjudicated permanent-and-total rating.3
• Need another person's help with daily activities such as bathing, feeding, or dressing; have to stay in bed, or spend much of the day in bed, because of illness; be a nursing home patient because of lost mental or physical abilities tied to a disability; or have severely limited eyesight3
• Have a net worth below $163,699 for 2026. VA's net worth calculation includes the veteran's and their dependents' assets and their annual income for VA purposes, so comparing assets alone against the limit gives the wrong answer; the primary home is not counted.3

The VA also applies a 3-year look-back on assets transferred for less than fair market value.3 Surviving spouses of wartime veterans can qualify under the Survivors Pension, which has its own Aid and Attendance rate.1

Using Aid and Attendance to Pay a Family Caregiver

Many families want a son, daughter, or spouse to provide the care. Aid and Attendance is a monthly pension payment, so it can be used to pay a family caregiver directly, and the VA's rules say care given by a relative or another household member does not prevent the award.3

There is also a separate VA program built for this. Veteran-Directed Care gives enrolled veterans a flexible budget, managed by the veteran or a representative, to hire and supervise their own workers, and they may hire family, friends, or neighbors.5 VA medical centers deliver it through aging and disability network agencies such as Area Agencies on Aging, where an options counselor helps plan services, arranges fiscal management services, and offers ongoing support. Enrolled veterans qualify if they are eligible for community care, meet the clinical criteria, and the program is available, so ask your VA medical center's social work team whether it is offered in your area.5

How Aid and Attendance Works with Kansas Medicaid

A Kansas senior can receive both VA pension with Aid and Attendance and Kansas Medicaid long-term care, branded KanCare and administered by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, but the two programs interact.6 At the KanCare eligibility step, Kansas applies SSI income rules, under which the Aid and Attendance allowance is not counted as income at all, so only the basic pension counts toward KanCare's Medicaid income limit.6

How that lands on a specific household's numbers depends on its other income and expenses, so anyone weighing both programs should confirm their own figures with a Kansas Office of Veterans Services representative and with KanCare.6

How to Apply and Get Free Help

Apply using VA Form 21-2680 (Examination for Housebound Status or Permanent Need for Regular Aid and Attendance), whose examination section a medical examiner must fill out to document the care need.7 That form covers two routes: the VA describes it as applying for Aid and Attendance benefits "that will be added to your monthly compensation or pension benefits." The steps below are the pension route, the one this guide is about, where the VA's condition is "You may be eligible for this benefit if you get a VA pension and you meet at least 1 of these requirements."7 On that route, a wartime veteran who is not already receiving a VA pension also files VA Form 21P-527EZ (Application for Veterans Pension), which is the means-tested wartime pension application; a veteran whose Aid and Attendance would instead be added to monthly disability compensation is on the other route, which these steps do not cover.7 If you are still gathering information, you can submit VA Form 21-0966 (Intent to File) first, because, as the VA puts it, "Submitting an intent to file can secure the earliest possible effective date for any retroactive payments you may be eligible to receive."7 You can file online at va.gov, by mail to the VA Pension Intake Center, in person at a VA regional office, or with an accredited representative. Asked how long a decision takes, the VA answers "It depends," and adds that it processes claims in the order it receives them, unless a claim requires priority processing.7

Do not do this alone. The Kansas Office of Veterans Services helps with VA pension claims, including non-service-connected pension benefits, through Veteran Service Representatives it says are accredited by the VA and certified annually. VSRs work out of field offices across the state, but KOVS asks you to schedule an appointment with your local VSR and to contact the nearest field office first, because travel schedules change. Its remote claims page states that all services are provided for no charge between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.6 Claims counseling, development, and processing can also be done from home by video conference or telephone. Contact your local VSR or call the KOVS main line at (785) 296-3976.6 The services an accredited VSO representative provides on a VA benefit claim are always free; an accredited attorney or claims agent can charge fees.6

Compare Care Settings in Kansas

Aid and Attendance can help pay for any care setting. See how it works for the others:

• How Aid and Attendance Pays for Assisted Living in Kansas
• How Aid and Attendance Pays for a Nursing Home in Kansas
• How Aid and Attendance Pays for Memory Care in Kansas

Learn More

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.