For a wartime veteran in New Hampshire who needs memory care, VA Aid and Attendance is worth up to $29,093 a year in 2026 with no dependents, less countable income. It's an increase on a VA pension, payable monthly to the veteran or surviving spouse, and VA benefit payments are exempt from taxation., CareScout's 2025 median for a New Hampshire assisted living community is $96,300 a year ($8,025 a month), and memory care can cost extra on top of that, so even the full benefit falls well short of the bill.,

This guide walks through what memory care costs in New Hampshire, what Aid and Attendance pays in 2026, how VA's need-for-aid test applies to dementia, how those care costs can actually help you qualify, how the benefit works alongside New Hampshire Medicaid, and where to get help applying.

In This Guide

How Much Memory Care Costs in New Hampshire

New Hampshire doesn't license memory care as a category of its own. Dementia care is delivered inside a setting the state already licenses, such as an Assisted Living Residence-Residential Care (He-P 804), and the state's dementia-training law (RSA 151:47 through 151:52) requires facilities and programs serving residents with dementia to provide initial dementia training to covered staff. Memory care is a specialized form of assisted living: the resident pays for the room or apartment and may need to pay extra for any special care. Assisted living itself is costly here. CareScout's 2025 Cost of Care Survey (released March 2, 2026) puts the New Hampshire median for an assisted living community at $96,300 a year ($8,025 a month), well above the national median of about $6,200 a month. Costs vary widely within the state and rise as care needs grow, and memory care can add an extra charge for special care on top of the room.,

That is a large, recurring cost, and the sections below set Aid and Attendance against it.

How Aid and Attendance Helps Pay for Memory Care in New Hampshire

Aid and Attendance is an increased monthly payment added to a VA pension, for veterans and surviving spouses who meet at least one aid-and-attendance requirement, such as needing help with daily activities. VA benefit payments are exempt from federal taxation. Under 38 CFR 3.273, the monthly rate is computed as pension payable to the beneficiary, the veteran or surviving spouse.

Here's what the 2026 rates look like, effective December 1, 2025 through November 30, 2026. VA publishes these ceilings as yearly Maximum Annual Pension Rates (MAPRs). A MAPR is the maximum amount of pension payable rather than a flat check: VA pays the difference between your income for VA purposes and that limit, so a household with countable income is awarded less than the figures below. Pension is paid monthly, and under 38 CFR 3.273 the monthly rate is the MAPR less your countable income, divided by 12.

Category Yearly maximum (MAPR)
Veteran alone $29,093
Veteran with one dependent (such as a spouse) $34,488
Surviving spouse, no dependents $18,697

Set the rates against the cost of care. Even the full $29,093 a year for a veteran alone falls short of New Hampshire's $96,300 assisted living median, but the benefit doesn't have to cover the whole cost to be worth claiming., It doesn't stack on top of your other income, though: the VA bases the payment on the difference between your income for VA purposes and the MAPR, so any income the VA counts lowers the award. Run the arithmetic on your own household rather than assuming the maximum.

Wondering how much Aid and Attendance could cover for your family's memory care costs? Chat with Brevy for a quick estimate.

How Dementia Fits the Need-for-Aid Test

Does a dementia diagnosis count for Aid and Attendance? There is no separate dementia rule in the VA's criteria, and a diagnosis alone doesn't qualify anyone: what the VA judges is the help a person actually needs.

VA lists four ways to meet the aid-and-attendance need, and one of them is needing another person to help with daily activities like bathing, feeding, and dressing (the full list is under Who Qualifies below). Under 38 CFR 3.352(a), the VA weighs factors that include being unable to dress, keep clean, or feed oneself, and a physical or mental incapacity that requires regular care to protect the person from the hazards of the daily environment. Not every factor has to be present, and the evidence only has to show a regular need for help, not a constant one. Being a patient in a nursing home due to the loss of mental or physical abilities related to a disability is itself one of the qualifying conditions VA lists, though a memory care residence is a form of assisted living rather than a nursing home, so a memory care resident who isn't a nursing home patient has to meet the need another way, such as the daily-help requirement.,,

The need is documented on a medical exam form (covered below), where a medical examiner fills out the examination section.

How Memory Care Costs Lower Your Countable Income

The VA pension is needs-based: to be eligible, your yearly family income and net worth have to meet limits Congress sets. Because the benefit is keyed to your income for VA purposes, you can lower that income by deducting unreimbursed medical expenses.

VA's rules treat assisted living, including a memory care residence, as a care facility other than a nursing home, and its fees can count as those medical expenses on that branch's own conditions. The facility must be licensed if New Hampshire requires that type of facility to be licensed, and a residential facility must be staffed 24 hours a day with care providers. Payments for health care from a health care provider count, and payments for help with daily activities count even when the caregiver isn't a health care provider, as long as the resident is receiving health care or custodial care there and either needs Aid and Attendance or is housebound, or a physician, PA, certified nurse practitioner, or clinical nurse specialist states in writing that, because of a cognitive or other disorder, the person needs to be in a protected environment. Meals and lodging count too if the facility provides or contracts for the resident's health or custodial care.

There's one rule to know: only the portion of those expenses above 5% of the applicable annual MAPR is deductible, counting the MAPR before any Aid and Attendance or housebound increase. For 2026, that 5% floor is $872 per year for a veteran with no spouse or child, and it rises for a veteran with dependents. New Hampshire's assisted living median alone is $96,300 a year, far above that floor, so a veteran whose income looks too high to qualify may still qualify once a year of qualifying memory care charges is deducted.,

Who Qualifies

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

  • Have wartime service: at least 90 days of active duty, with at least one day during a wartime period, for service that started before September 8, 1980; an enlisted person who started after September 7, 1980 generally needs at least 24 months or the full period called to active duty, with at least one wartime day; and an officer who started after October 16, 1981 and hadn't previously served at least 24 months on active duty needs at least one day during a wartime period. Wartime periods include World War II, the Korean conflict, the Vietnam War era, and the Gulf War (August 2, 1990, to a date not yet set).
  • Have no dishonorable discharge, and meet at least one of four age-or-disability routes: 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, so a wartime veteran under 65 who receives SSI meets this test without a permanent-and-total rating, and so does one in a nursing home for long-term care because of a disability.
  • Need aid and attendance, meaning at least one of these: needing another person to help with daily activities like bathing, feeding, and dressing; having to stay in bed, or spend a large portion of the day in bed, because of illness; being a patient in a nursing home due to the loss of mental or physical abilities related to a disability; or eyesight limited to 5/200 or less in both eyes, or a visual field contracted to 5 degrees or less.
  • Have a net worth under $163,699 for 2026. The VA's net-worth calculation counts the claimant's and their dependents' assets together with their annual income, excluding the primary home, a vehicle, and basic household items, so comparing assets alone against the limit gives you the wrong answer.

This is the wartime pension, not disability compensation: the VA describes pension as a benefit for wartime veterans based on financial need, while disability compensation is the benefit for veterans with service-connected disabilities. The VA also applies a 3-year look-back on assets transferred for less than fair market value before you file, with a penalty period that can run up to five years, so don't give away or move assets to qualify without getting advice first.

How Aid and Attendance Works with New Hampshire Medicaid for Memory Care

Aid and Attendance and Medicaid are separate programs run by different agencies under different rules, and a veteran may qualify for both. New Hampshire's Medicaid long-term care benefits, nursing facility care and the home- and community-based Choices for Independence (CFI) waiver, are administered by the NH Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), which sets its own income and asset limits.

The two programs count income differently, and that matters. For the VA pension, memory care costs that meet VA's conditions can be deducted to lower countable income. On the Medicaid side, the eligibility step and the share-of-cost step work differently. For eligibility, states apply SSI income rules to the aged, blind, and disabled Medicaid groups, and under those rules VA aid and attendance and housebound allowances are not counted as income. But SSA lists New Hampshire among the 8 states that use at least one eligibility criterion more restrictive than SSI, so New Hampshire's own eligibility rule governs at that step and may differ; confirm how it treats the Aid and Attendance amount with DHHS before relying on it.

Once a person is eligible, New Hampshire's rules apply the Aid and Attendance allowance toward the cost of care, with one limit for nursing facility residents explained below. For a nursing facility resident, New Hampshire's cost-of-care rule (He-W 854.17, applied in DHHS Medical Assistance Manual 619.01) starts from the resident's earned income, less an employment expense disregard, plus unearned income including SSI. It then subtracts, in order: either the $90 VA nursing facility pension or the state's $93 personal needs allowance; income allocated to family members under the state's allocation rules; the resident's own health insurance premiums, coinsurance and deductibles, necessary care Medicaid doesn't cover, and unpaid prior medical debt; continuing SSI benefits; and, for a stay a physician expects to last 3 months or less, an allowance to maintain the home. Only then does it add the VA Aid and Attendance allowance back, and the result is what the resident must apply toward the cost of care. The $90 is protected instead of the $93 allowance, not on top of it, so the two are never added together. That $90 comes from a federal cap: a veteran with no spouse or child, or a surviving spouse with no child, who is receiving Medicaid-covered nursing home care is paid no more than $90 a month in pension for any period after the month Medicaid payments begin (38 CFR 3.551(i)), though care in a State veterans home that VA makes per diem payments to for nursing home care falls outside the cap. That cap is also why the add-back reaches only a resident whose pension hasn't been cut to $90, such as a veteran with a spouse or a child: New Hampshire subtracts the $90 nursing facility pension before anything is added back, and federal law (38 U.S.C. 5503(d)(3)) bars reducing the facility's Medicaid payment by any pension paid under that cap.

For Choices for Independence and other home- and community-based services, New Hampshire's rule (He-W 854.12(b)) says the Aid and Attendance allowance shall be applied to the cost of care; ask a DHHS caseworker how the rest of that calculation works for you before you budget. Because the exact treatment depends on your household and benefits, confirm your plan with a NH DHHS caseworker and an accredited Veterans Services Officer before relying on both.

How to Apply and Where to Get Help

The steps below are the pension route, where the VA's condition is that you may be eligible if you get a VA pension. Aid and Attendance is not paid only as part of a pension, though: VA describes Form 21-2680 as applying for Aid and Attendance benefits that will be added to your monthly compensation or pension benefits.

  • VA Form 21-2680 (Examination for Housebound Status or Permanent Need for Regular Aid and Attendance). A medical examiner must fill out the examination information section, documenting the need for help. This is the form for either route, pension or compensation.
  • VA Form 21P-527EZ (Application for Veterans Pension), which a wartime veteran on the pension route who isn't already receiving a VA pension also files.

If you are still gathering records, you can file VA Form 21-0966 (Intent to File) first. Submitting an intent to file can secure the earliest possible effective date for any retroactive payments you may be eligible to receive.

You can file online at VA.gov, by mail to the VA Pension Intake Center, in person at a VA regional office, or through an accredited representative. How long a decision takes, in the VA's own words, "depends"; it works through claims in the order it receives them, unless a claim requires priority processing.

Don't do this alone. The New Hampshire Division of Veterans Services employs Veterans Services Officers (VSOs) who assist New Hampshire-resident veterans and their dependents in securing the state and federal benefits they may be entitled to, and state law (RSA 110-B:85) charges the Division with a statewide structure that helps veterans and family members identify eligibility and file claims. Its forms list links an Aid & Attendance Pension form. Visits are by appointment: call (603) 624-9230, or 1-800-622-9230 toll-free within New Hampshire.

What to Do If the Claim Is Denied

A denial is not the end of the road. If the VA denies the claim or awards less than you expected, you have three decision review options after that initial decision, and you elect one of them rather than filing several: under 38 CFR 3.2500(b), once you have filed under one option you cannot file under a different one while that review is pending final adjudication. The menu changes as the case moves: after a Higher-Level Review decision the choices are a Supplemental Claim or a Board Appeal (there is no second Higher-Level Review), and after a Board decision they are a Supplemental Claim or an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, which must be filed within 120 days from the date on the Board's decision letter. That last appeal is filed with the Court, not with the VA, and a notice of appeal that is properly addressed and mailed is deemed received on the date of the legible U.S. Postal Service postmark on the envelope, so what counts is mailing it inside the 120 days, not the day it reaches the Court.

  • Supplemental Claim. File new and relevant evidence the VA did not have when it reviewed the case before, such as an updated exam form documenting how far the dementia has progressed. You can file one at any time after the VA issues notice of its decision, but file inside the first year: a Supplemental Claim the VA receives more than one year after the date on the decision notice takes an effective date no earlier than the date the VA receives it (38 CFR 3.2500), so waiting past the year can cost back pay. If you switch to a Supplemental Claim from another review option after the one-year period, continuous pursuit of the claim is broken unless the VA grants an extension of the one-year period for good cause (38 CFR 3.109(b)).
  • Higher-Level Review. Ask a higher-level VA reviewer to look at the case again, with no new evidence submitted. This has to be elected within one year of the date the VA issued notice of the decision, with narrow exceptions: in a simultaneously contested claim, where only one of several claimants can win the benefit, the only route is a Board Appeal filed within 60 days.
  • Board Appeal. Appeal to the Board of Veterans' Appeals and have a Veterans Law Judge review the case, on that same one-year clock.

An accredited attorney, claims agent, or Veterans Service Organization representative can help you request a decision review, and the VA's search tool finds one. In New Hampshire, state law (RSA 110-B:85) also charges the Division of Veterans Services with helping veterans and family members review claims decisions for appeals.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does VA Aid and Attendance pay the memory care community directly?

Aid and Attendance is a pension payment, and VA computes it under 38 CFR 3.273 as a monthly rate payable to the beneficiary, the veteran or surviving spouse.

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

Not by itself. There is no separate dementia rule, and the VA decides on the help the veteran actually needs rather than the diagnosis. One way to meet the need test is needing another person's help with daily activities like bathing, feeding, and dressing, and under 38 CFR 3.352(a) VA also weighs a physical or mental incapacity that requires regular care to protect the person from the hazards of the daily environment. A medical examiner documents the need on VA Form 21-2680.

Can the cost of memory care help me qualify financially?

It can. Memory care fees can count as unreimbursed medical expenses that lower your countable income, when the facility and the resident meet VA's care-facility conditions, and only the portion above 5% of the applicable annual MAPR, counted before any Aid and Attendance increase, is deductible. For 2026 that floor is $872 per year for a veteran with no spouse or child. Because New Hampshire's assisted living median alone is $96,300 a year, a veteran who looks too high-income on paper may still qualify once qualifying care costs are deducted.,

Can a surviving spouse get Aid and Attendance for memory care?

Yes. Through the Survivors Pension with Aid and Attendance, the 2026 maximum annual rate for a surviving spouse with no dependents is $18,697, or $22,304 with one dependent child, subject to the same $163,699 net worth limit. Like the veteran benefit, it's paid monthly and reduced by countable income.

Compare Care Settings in New Hampshire

See how Aid and Attendance applies in New Hampshire's other care settings:

Learn More

VA BenefitsVA Aid and Attendance in New HampshireVA Aid and Attendance in New Hampshire for 2026: who qualifies, up to $2,874 a month for a veteran with a spouse, how to apply, and where to get help in NH. VA BenefitsVA Benefits for Senior Care in New HampshireA guide to VA senior care benefits in New Hampshire: home care, nursing homes, Aid and Attendance, the state veterans home, and how to access them in 2026. Care TypesMemory Care in New HampshireNew Hampshire has no separate memory care license. Dementia care is delivered in a licensed residence, and state law requires dementia-specific staff training. VA BenefitsHow VA Aid and Attendance Pays for Assisted LivingVA Aid and Attendance raises the pension ceiling to $34,488 a year with one dependent. Learn who qualifies in New Hampshire and how assisted-living costs count. VA BenefitsVA Benefits for Senior Care: A Complete GuideA complete guide to VA benefits for senior care: long-term care, Aid and Attendance, pensions, DIC, and home grants for older veterans and surviving spouses.
Your next step Find personalized help using VA benefits to pay for memory care in New Hampshire 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.

Still have questions?

Brevy answers from this guide and every other guide here, and can check what you qualify for.

BC

Brevy Care Team

Expert eldercare guidance from Brevy's team of healthcare professionals and researchers.