Figuring out how to pay for a parent's memory care is one of the harder problems a family takes on. When the person who needs care is a wartime veteran or a surviving spouse, VA Aid and Attendance can help. In 2026 it can pay up to $2,424 a month toward the bill in Kansas, and many families who assume they earn too much to qualify actually do. Aid and Attendance is an increased monthly VA pension for wartime veterans and surviving spouses who need help with everyday activities, and that description fits many people living with dementia.

This guide walks through what the benefit pays in 2026, why a veteran with Alzheimer's or another dementia often qualifies, how memory-care costs can lower the income the VA counts against you, and how to apply at no cost. Take it one section at a time; you do not need to understand all of it before you begin.

In This Guide

Key Takeaways

  • In 2026, at the Aid and Attendance rate the pension is capped at $2,424 a month for a veteran, $2,874 for a veteran with one dependent, and $1,558 for a surviving spouse. Each figure limits the whole pension rather than adding to it.
  • Dementia commonly meets the benefit's core test (needing help with daily activities or protection from everyday hazards), so a veteran with Alzheimer's often qualifies.
  • Memory care in Kansas is a secured, specially staffed setting within a licensed adult care home; there is no separate memory-care license in the state.
  • Memory-care fees can count as unreimbursed medical expenses that lower the income the VA counts, which can qualify a family that looks "too high" on paper.
  • The Kansas Office of Veterans Services (KOVS) helps file VA pension claims, including Aid and Attendance, at no charge; a VSO representative's services on a VA claim are always free, while an accredited attorney or claims agent can charge fees.

How Much Memory Care Costs in Kansas

In Kansas, memory care is not a separate license. The state does not issue a stand-alone memory-care license; dementia care and secured special-care sections are regulated within licensed adult care homes, chiefly assisted living and residential health care facilities. The rules require that direct-care staff working in a secured dementia section receive dementia-specific training before they are assigned there, and that any secured unit control resident exits in the least restrictive way possible.

Because there is no separate license, there is no single official "memory care" price tag in Kansas. The closest published benchmark is the cost of assisted living, which memory care builds on. The CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey (released in March 2026) puts assisted living in Kansas at about $5,975 a month, just under the $6,200 national median and unchanged from the prior year. Annualized over 12 months in a private one-bedroom, CareScout's state data table gives Kansas $71,700 a year, while its Kansas release prints $71,370 for the same line; only $71,700 matches the monthly median. These are industry-survey medians collected at the metropolitan-area level, not government figures, and costs vary within the state and rise as care needs grow. The secured setting and specialized dementia staffing that define memory care typically push the monthly rate above that standard assisted-living figure, so treat the assisted-living median as a floor rather than a full estimate.

How Aid and Attendance Helps Pay for Memory Care in Kansas

Aid and Attendance is the same VA pension paid at a higher maximum rate for those who need regular help with daily activities, so the maximums below are ceilings on the whole pension rather than extra money paid on top of the basic rate. It is paid as a monthly cash benefit, so the money can go straight toward a memory-care bill. The VA sets the maximums as annual amounts, in effect from December 1, 2025 through November 30, 2026; a monthly payment is the yearly amount divided by 12:

Who qualifies Maximum Aid and Attendance pension (2026)
Veteran (no dependents) $29,093 / year, about $2,424 / month
Veteran with one dependent $34,488 / year, about $2,874 / month
Surviving spouse $18,697 / year, about $1,558 / month

These are maximums, and the VA treats a maximum as a ceiling to pay up to rather than an amount to pay. It works out an award as the difference between a household's income for VA purposes and the rate above, so a veteran with countable income left after deductions is paid the gap. Which is where memory-care costs come in: allowable medical expenses come off that income first, and a secured dementia unit is usually the largest one a Kansas family has. Against a Kansas memory-care bill that starts above the roughly $5,975-a-month assisted-living median, even the full benefit covers only part of the cost, but it is a meaningful, predictable offset every month.

Why Veterans With Dementia Often Qualify

The Aid and Attendance test is about need, not a specific diagnosis. The VA looks for someone who needs help with daily activities such as bathing, dressing, or feeding themselves, who must be protected from everyday hazards, who is largely confined to bed, or who is in a facility because of physical or mental incapacity. A veteran living with moderate or advanced dementia usually meets one or more of these descriptions: needing supervision to stay safe and hands-on help through the day is exactly what a secured memory-care unit provides.

The need is documented on a medical form (VA Form 21-2680) whose examination section a medical examiner fills out, describing the help required. For a dementia diagnosis, that form is where the examiner records the supervision, cueing, and personal-care assistance the condition demands.

How Memory Care Costs Lower Your Countable Income for Aid and Attendance in Kansas

This is the part families most often miss. VA pension is needs-based: to be eligible, the veteran's yearly family income and net worth must meet limits set by Congress. Because the benefit is keyed to the income the VA counts, you can lower that income by deducting unreimbursed medical expenses, and the care a family pays for in a secured dementia unit can be one of them. The regulation handles care expenses branch by branch, and a secured dementia unit sits in the branch 38 CFR 3.278 writes for a care facility other than a nursing home.

That branch tests the facility first. It must be licensed if facilities of that type are required to be licensed in the state, and a residential facility must be staffed 24 hours per day with care providers, though those providers do not have to be licensed health care providers. Kansas issues no stand-alone memory-care license; dementia care and secured special care sections are regulated within licensed adult care homes, chiefly assisted living facilities and residential health care facilities. So the license to ask about is the adult care home license the unit already sits inside.

Then the bill splits in two. Payments for health care provided by a health care provider are medical expenses. Beyond that, the provider does not need to be a health care provider, and payments for assistance with activities of daily living are medical expenses so long as the resident is receiving health care or custodial care in the facility and either needs Aid and Attendance or is housebound, or a physician, physician assistant, certified nurse practitioner, or clinical nurse specialist states in writing that a physical, mental, developmental, or cognitive disorder means they need to be in a protected environment. A resident with dementia in a secured unit is the case that route is written for, but the VA needs a clinician to say so in writing, and that letter is the one errand a family has to run.

Meals and lodging are tested on their own. They count if the facility provides or contracts for the resident's health care or custodial care, or if a clinician states in writing that the resident must reside in the facility to receive that care from a third-party provider, family, or friends. None of that makes the whole monthly charge deductible automatically, so have a Veteran Service Representative review the billing statements with you before you file.

Only the portion of those expenses that exceeds 5% of the applicable annual pension limit is deductible. 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)." That floor rises if you have dependents, but it never includes the Aid and Attendance or housebound increase, and it is an annual figure, not a monthly one.

Here is how that plays out. Suppose a veteran pays about $5,975 a month for a Kansas memory-care unit, or roughly $71,700 over 12 months, the assisted-living median that a secured dementia rate typically meets or exceeds. With the conditions above met, almost all of that (everything above the $872 floor that the VA treats as a medical expense) comes off countable income. A veteran whose income looked too high to qualify on paper can drop to little or no countable income once that bill is subtracted, which can unlock all or most of the monthly benefit.

Who Qualifies

Beyond the need for aid and attendance, the VA pension has service, age, and financial tests:

  • Wartime service. At least 90 days of active duty with at least one day during a recognized wartime period (such as World War II, Korea, Vietnam, or the Gulf War). Gulf War-era service has a longer active-duty requirement.
  • Discharge, plus age or disability. The veteran must not have received a dishonorable discharge, and must meet at least one of four alternatives: being at least 65 years old; having a permanent and total disability; being a patient in a nursing home for long-term care because of a disability; or getting Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income. Any one of the four satisfies this test, so a wartime veteran under 65 on SSDI or SSI qualifies without a permanent-and-total rating.
  • Net worth. Total net worth must be under $163,699 for 2026. The VA's net worth calculation includes the claimant's and their dependents' assets and annual income for VA purposes, so income counts toward the limit rather than assets alone. The primary home, a vehicle, and basic household items do not count.
  • Three-year look-back. The VA reviews assets transferred for less than fair market value in the three years before filing, and a transfer can trigger a penalty period. Talk to an accredited representative before giving away or moving assets to qualify.

A surviving spouse who has not remarried can qualify under the Survivors Pension, with the same $163,699 net-worth limit.

How Aid and Attendance Works with Kansas Medicaid

A senior can receive both VA pension with Aid and Attendance and Kansas Medicaid long-term care, but the two programs interact. Kansas Medicaid is the state's Medicaid program, branded KanCare and administered by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE).

For Medicaid long-term-care eligibility, At the 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. Separately, under federal law a veteran or surviving spouse without a dependent spouse or child who is covered by a Medicaid plan for nursing-facility services may be paid no more than $90 per month in VA pension for any month after the month of admission; that $90 is treated as an aid and attendance allowance rather than income, so the facility cannot count it toward the cost of care. That rule applies to Medicaid-covered nursing-facility care, not to privately paid memory care. One further setting sits outside it: 38 U.S.C. 5503(d)(1)(B) excludes from the term nursing facility "a facility that is a State home with respect to which the Secretary makes per diem payments for nursing home care pursuant to section 1741(a) of this title". If a Kansas state veterans home is under consideration, have the stay checked against that definition rather than assuming the cap applies. 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 KOVS Veteran Service Representative and with KanCare/KDHE before relying on either rule.

How to Apply and Get Free Help

Every claim starts with VA Form 21-2680, the examination form documenting the need for regular aid and attendance, whose examination section a medical examiner fills out. The VA describes that form as applying for Aid and Attendance "that will be added to your monthly compensation or pension benefits," so it serves two routes: a veteran who receives VA disability compensation uses it to seek the increase on that compensation. The steps here describe the pension route, the one this guide is about, and the VA's condition for it is "You may be eligible for this benefit if you get a VA pension." On that route, a wartime veteran who is not already receiving a VA pension also files VA Form 21P-527EZ, the Application for Veterans Pension. If you are still gathering information, you can submit VA Form 21-0966 (Intent to File) first: the VA says "Submitting an intent to file can secure the earliest possible effective date for any retroactive payments you may be eligible to receive." You can submit online at VA.gov, by mail to the VA Pension Intake Center, in person at a VA regional office, or through 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, so file as early as you can.

In Kansas, you do not have to do this alone or pay for help. The Kansas Office of Veterans Services (KOVS) provides claims assistance through Veteran Service Representatives it describes as trained and accredited, available at field office locations across the state, and its Veteran Services Program can help file VA claims including non-service-connected pension benefits and Aid and Attendance. KOVS states that all services are provided for no charge between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., and claims counseling, development, and processing can also be completed from home by video conference or telephone. Contact your local VSR or call the KOVS main line, (785) 296-3976. The services an accredited VSO representative provides on a VA benefit claim are always free; an accredited attorney or claims agent can charge fees.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a dementia diagnosis automatically qualify a veteran for Aid and Attendance?

Not automatically: the benefit is based on need, not a diagnosis. But a veteran with dementia who needs help with daily activities or supervision to stay safe usually meets the test, and a medical examiner documents that need on VA Form 21-2680.

Can Aid and Attendance pay the full cost of memory care in Kansas?

Usually not the full cost. Kansas memory care typically starts above the assisted-living median of about $5,975 a month, and the maximum benefit is $2,424 a month for a veteran. It is a steady monthly offset toward the bill rather than full coverage.

My parent's income seems too high. Should we still apply?

Yes. The VA lets you deduct unreimbursed medical expenses, including memory-care costs, from countable income, and only the amount above the annual floor ($872 for a veteran with no spouse or child) counts. Under the care-facility branch of 38 CFR 3.278, a licensed unit staffed 24 hours a day with care providers has its care charges counted when the resident needs Aid and Attendance or is housebound, or when a clinician states in writing that a cognitive disorder means they need to be in a protected environment, with meals and lodging counted when the facility provides or contracts for that care. A large memory-care bill can then drop countable income to little or nothing, so families who look ineligible on paper often still qualify.

Can my parent get both Aid and Attendance and KanCare?

Yes, a senior can receive both VA pension with Aid and Attendance and Kansas Medicaid (KanCare), though the programs interact and the treatment of VA income can vary. Confirm the specifics with a KOVS Veteran Service Representative and with KanCare/KDHE before relying on either program.

Next Steps

Start by asking the veteran's doctor or another medical examiner to complete VA Form 21-2680, then contact a KOVS Veteran Service Representative to prepare and file the claim for free. Gather income and asset records ahead of time, and if you are weighing KanCare alongside the VA benefit, ask KOVS and KanCare/KDHE how the two will interact in your situation.

Compare Care Settings in Kansas

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

Learn More

VA BenefitsVA Aid and Attendance in KansasVA Aid and Attendance in Kansas for 2026: who qualifies, monthly rates up to $2,874, how to apply, and free help from the Kansas Office of Veterans Services. VA BenefitsVA Aid and Attendance for Assisted Living in KansasHow VA Aid and Attendance helps pay for assisted living in Kansas: 2026 monthly rates, the 5% medical expense rule, who qualifies, and free help to apply. Care TypesMemory Care in KansasKansas has no memory care license. Secure dementia care is a special-care section inside a licensed adult care home. See the rules, cost, and how to vet one.
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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.

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