VA Aid and Attendance in Minnesota (2026)

VA Aid and Attendance in Minnesota is a federal pension benefit that pays a wartime veteran a larger monthly check when they need regular help with everyday tasks like bathing, dressing, or eating. For a veteran with a spouse, the 2026 maximum is $34,488 a year, paid in monthly installments, and surviving spouses can qualify too.1

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• What Is Aid and Attendance?
• Do You Qualify?
• 2026 Aid and Attendance Rates
• The Net Worth Limit and 3-Year Lookback
• How to Apply for VA Aid and Attendance in Minnesota
• Free Help in Minnesota: MDVA and County Veterans Service Officers
• How VA Aid and Attendance Works with Minnesota Medical Assistance
• Common Misconceptions
• 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. On that route 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 is the maximum for the entire pension, not the basic rate with an extra amount added on.1,3 Aid and Attendance is not paid only through a pension, though. The VA also adds it to a veteran's monthly disability compensation, which is a different route with its own rules; this guide covers the pension side.3

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

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

You can also qualify if you're bedridden, spend a large part of the day in bed because of illness, live in a nursing home because of lost mental or physical abilities related to a disability, or have severely limited eyesight (5/200 or less in both eyes).2

Federal law makes VA benefit payments, A&A included, exempt from taxation.5

Do You Qualify?

To receive Aid and Attendance, you have to meet all four of these requirements.2

1. Wartime service. How much active duty the VA requires turns on when the veteran started serving, not on which war. A veteran who started 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. A veteran who started active duty as an enlisted person after September 7, 1980 generally must have served at least 24 months, or the full period for which they were called or ordered to active duty, again with at least one day during wartime. A third branch covers officers: a veteran who started active duty as an officer after October 16, 1981 qualifies under that branch if they had not previously served on active duty for at least 24 months. Qualifying periods include World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War (which includes all post-9/11 service).2

2. No dishonorable discharge, plus age or disability. The veteran must not have received a dishonorable discharge. On top of that, at least one of these four must be true: they are at least 65 years old; they have a permanent and total disability; they are a patient in a nursing home for long-term care because of a disability; or they are getting Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income. Any single one of the four satisfies this test on its own, so a wartime veteran under 65 who receives SSI qualifies here without ever having been rated permanently and totally disabled.2

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.2

4. Net worth under $163,699. This is the 2026 limit. It counts your assets plus your annual income combined. Your primary home doesn't count, and VA recognizes one primary residence per claimant. Neither do personal effects suitable to and consistent with a reasonable mode of life, which the regulation illustrates as appliances and family transportation vehicles.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, worth up to $18,697 a year in 2026 for a surviving spouse with no dependents, or $22,304 a year with one dependent child.1

2026 Aid and Attendance Rates

The VA calculates your payment as the difference between your countable income and the Maximum Annual Pension Rate (MAPR) for your category. With no countable income at all, the payment is the full rate. These rates are federal, so they're the same in Minnesota as anywhere else. The VA publishes them as annual amounts. Federal regulations set the monthly payment: your annual rate minus your countable income, divided by 12, and rounded down to the nearest whole dollar.1

Here's how the math works. 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 Out-of-pocket medical expenses, including what you pay for care, can reduce your countable income and raise your benefit, but only the amount above 5% of your rate counts. For a veteran with a spouse, that threshold is $1,141 in 2026.1

The Net Worth Limit and 3-Year Lookback

The 2026 net worth limit is $163,699. This combines your assets (everything you own except your primary residence, your car, and basic home items) with your annual income.1

What counts: the fair market value of all the real and personal property you own that isn't excluded below, minus mortgages or other debts secured against that specific property, plus your annual income.1

What doesn't count: your primary residence, which VA recognizes as one per claimant, plus personal effects suitable to and consistent with a reasonable mode of life, which the regulation illustrates as appliances and family transportation vehicles. That is a qualitative test, not a count.1 The exclusion covers the lot up to 2 acres; marketable land beyond that counts as an asset, which matters on a Minnesota farm. The home stays excluded even if you move into a nursing home.1

The 3-Year Lookback Rule

The VA reviews any assets you transferred for less than fair market value in the three years before VA receives your claim. That includes buying an annuity, funding a trust, or buying another financial product that lowers your net worth, unless you can cash out the full balance for yourself, in which case it counts as net worth.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.2

The penalty can be steep, so talk to a VA-accredited attorney or an elder law attorney before you move money.

How to Apply for VA Aid and Attendance in Minnesota

The steps below are the pension route, the one this guide is about: the VA says you may be eligible for Aid and Attendance if you get a VA pension. VA Form 21-2680 covers a second route as well, because the VA describes it as the form used to apply for Aid and Attendance "that will be added to your monthly compensation or pension benefits." A veteran who receives VA disability compensation rather than a pension follows that compensation route and should not file the wartime pension application below.3

Documents to Gather First

• Discharge papers showing your active-duty dates and a discharge other than dishonorable2
• 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 Minnesota: MDVA and County Veterans Service Officers

You don't have to file this claim alone, and under Minnesota law you cannot be charged for a county veterans service officer's help.4

The Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs (MDVA)

The Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs, known as MDVA, is the state's front door for veterans and their families. Its St. Paul and Fargo Claims Divisions represent veterans and their dependents who are seeking federal veterans benefits with regards to compensation, non-service connected pension, vocational rehabilitation, or educational benefits, and MDVA tells veterans with questions about which benefits they may be eligible to receive to contact their County Veterans Service Officer. MDVA's LinkVet is a one-stop service center staffed by support specialists trained through MDVA; reach it at 1-888-LinkVet (1-888-546-5838).4

MDVA also operates eight Minnesota Veterans Homes, in Bemidji, Fergus Falls, Hastings, Luverne, Minneapolis, Montevideo, Preston, and Silver Bay. These are 24/7 facilities offering a mix of skilled nursing, special care units for dementia and Alzheimer's, domiciliary (residential) care, rehabilitation, and recreational therapy. MDVA's admission requirements say residents must require skilled nursing care, while its Domiciliary Program uses a different test: residents must be independently mobile.7 Before moving into one, ask an accredited veterans service officer whether VA pays that home a nursing-home per diem; that decides whether the federal $90 pension cap below applies.8

County Veterans Service Officers

This is where Minnesota's system stands out. State law requires the county board of any county, or the boards of two or more counties acting jointly, to appoint a county veterans service officer (CVSO), and it is that officer's duty to aid all residents of the subdivision that employs them in securing the benefits provided by law on account of military service, so long as the discharge was other than dishonorable.4

Their help is not just free as a courtesy. Minnesota Statutes section 197.604, titled "Unlawful to Pay Fee," makes it unlawful for any person to pay a county veterans service officer, or for a CVSO to receive any fee directly or indirectly, for any service rendered in securing those benefits; a violation is a gross misdemeanor.4 For benefit questions, MDVA's own advice is to contact your CVSO or call 1-888-LinkVet.4

Minnesota's Veteran Population

Minnesota had 277,911 veterans in 2025, according to the FY2025 Minnesota state summary from the VA's National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics, a modelled estimate rather than a head count.9 They skew older than the country's veterans as a whole: in that same summary, 53% of Minnesota veterans (147,191 people) are 65 or over, against 45.8% nationally.9 Being 65 or older is one of the four ways a wartime veteran meets the pension's age-or-disability test.2 It's worth contacting your county 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. The VA says the services an accredited Veterans Service Organization representative provides on your claim are always free, while an accredited attorney or claims agent can charge fees.4

How VA Aid and Attendance Works with Minnesota Medical Assistance

Aid and Attendance and Minnesota's Medicaid program, called Medical Assistance (MA) and run by the Department of Human Services, are run separately, under different rules. A veteran can receive both at the same time, but the two count money differently, and one point here is unusually important.8

• In Minnesota, A&A counts as income for Medical Assistance. This is the most important state-specific point. Minnesota's DHS Eligibility Policy Manual provides that VA Aid and Attendance benefits are not excluded for Medical Assistance, even for a person receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI). They are counted as income. Because states treat A&A differently, don't assume the rule you read for another state applies here.8
• The two programs pay in different ways. A&A is part of a monthly pension paid to the veteran or surviving spouse, while MA helps pay for long-term care itself; in a nursing facility, what you contribute reduces the agency's payment to the facility.8
• A&A can affect what you contribute toward care. As one of the eight 209(b) states, Minnesota falls under 42 CFR 435.733, which says income disregarded at eligibility must still be considered when setting what a facility resident contributes. So A&A that VA still pays at the full rate can count toward what you owe, though we can't confirm Minnesota's own treatment at this step.8
• For a veteran with no spouse or child, Medicaid nursing-facility coverage caps the VA pension at $90 a month. Federal law says that once Medicaid covers that veteran's nursing-facility care, no more than $90 a month in pension is paid for any period after the month of admission, and the same rule applies to a surviving spouse with no child. A State Veterans Home that receives VA's nursing-home per diem is excluded from the cap, so ask an accredited veterans service officer how it applies to a particular home.8
• Incurred medical expenses are only one of five deductions. Before the agency reduces its payment to the nursing facility, 42 CFR 435.733(c) requires it to deduct five amounts from the resident's total income, in this order: (1) a personal needs allowance for clothing and other personal needs while in the institution; (2) for a resident with only a spouse at home, an additional amount for that spouse's maintenance needs; (3) for a resident with a family at home, an additional amount for the family's maintenance needs; (4) incurred expenses for medical or remedial care that are not subject to payment by a third party; and (5) the full amount of any SSI and state supplementary payments the resident continues to receive. All five are amounts the agency must deduct, not benefits a family applies for, and the amount for a spouse at home comes off before anything reaches the facility. Federal law sets only a minimum personal needs allowance, $30 a month for an individual; ask your county MA eligibility worker what Minnesota protects in your case.8
• Get your case checked. Because Minnesota counts A&A as income for MA, and the federal share-of-cost rules above apply to nursing facility care rather than to waiver services at home, confirm how your specific VA pension and A&A payments are treated with your county veterans service officer and your county MA eligibility worker before you file.8

For the bigger picture of protecting assets while planning for long-term care, start with our guide to Medicaid planning strategies.

Common Misconceptions

A few misunderstandings keep Minnesota veterans and surviving spouses from applying when they would actually qualify.

"My husband served in peacetime, so A&A doesn't apply." Wartime periods are calendar ranges set by law. The Gulf War period, for example, began August 2, 1990 and has no end date yet, so it takes in all post-9/11 service. A veteran needs at least one day of active duty inside a wartime period, on top of the minimum length of service described above, so someone who thinks of their service as peacetime may still have served during a recognized wartime window.2

"A&A is only for service-connected injuries." It isn't. Under the pension program, the disability does not have to be service-connected at all, and the test is not just age: a wartime veteran meets it by being 65 or older, by having a permanent and total disability, by being a patient in a nursing home for long-term care because of a disability, or by receiving SSDI or SSI.2 Service-connected disability compensation is a separate benefit with its own rules, and Aid and Attendance can be added to that monthly compensation instead.3

"Her savings are too high, so she won't qualify." The 2026 net worth limit of $163,699 combines assets and annual income, but your primary home and family vehicles suitable to a reasonable mode of life don't count, and unreimbursed care costs above 5% of the applicable rate come off the income side before it's added to assets. A Minnesota widow who owns her home and pays several thousand dollars a month for care can still qualify even when her account balance looks too high at first glance.1

"I have to pay someone to file the claim." No. Minnesota law makes it unlawful to pay a county veterans service officer, or for one to receive any fee directly or indirectly, for any service rendered in securing your benefits, and a violation is a gross misdemeanor.4

Learn More

Find personalized help applying for VA Aid and Attendance in Minnesota at brevy.com.

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.