If you are keeping a veteran parent at home in Vermont, VA Aid and Attendance can put real cash toward the aide who helps them. This guide covers the VA pension route, where it is paid as part of a veteran's or surviving spouse's monthly VA pension, and because it arrives as cash, the money can go straight toward in-home care rather than a specific facility. With Vermont's in-home care among the costliest in the country, that monthly check can be the difference between keeping a parent at home and not.

This guide explains exactly how Aid and Attendance works for in-home care, how much it pays in 2026, who qualifies, and how to get free help filing the claim.

In This Guide

How Much In-Home Care Costs in Vermont

Vermont's long-term care costs run well above the national medians, and in-home care is no exception. According to the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey (released March 2026, the most recent state-level data), a non-medical caregiver in Vermont runs about $102,960 a year, the second-highest rate in the country and up 3 percent from 2024, well above the national median of about $80,080 a year ($35 an hour, assuming 44 hours of care a week). That works out to roughly $8,580 a month, a figure derived from the published annual rate rather than one CareScout reports on its own.

Beginning with the 2025 survey, CareScout combined the former homemaker and home health aide categories into a single non-medical caregiver rate. A non-medical caregiver helps with errands, meals, and housekeeping, and can add hands-on help with bathing, dressing, and similar daily tasks. These are industry-survey medians, not government figures, so the real number for any one family depends on how many hours of care are needed each week and where in the state you live. Either way, paying for in-home care out of pocket adds up fast, which is why an extra monthly benefit matters.

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

Aid and Attendance is an increased monthly VA pension for a qualifying veteran or surviving spouse who needs help with daily activities. It raises the ceiling on the pension itself rather than paying a second benefit on top of the basic rate. It is paid as cash, so unlike a benefit that only covers care at a specific facility, the money can go toward an in-home aide, a homemaker, or other care costs at home.

Here is what the benefit pays in 2026 (rates effective December 1, 2025 through November 30, 2026). The VA publishes these as maximum annual pension rates, so the monthly figure is simply the yearly amount divided by 12:

Category Maximum Annual Rate Monthly Equivalent
Veteran alone $29,093 $2,424
Veteran with one dependent $34,488 $2,874
Surviving spouse $18,697 $1,558

Do not budget from those figures. They are ceilings, not payments. The VA bases the payment amount on the difference between your income for VA purposes and a limit Congress sets, and the Maximum Annual Pension Rate is that limit: the maximum amount of pension payable. A veteran with other income receives the maximum less that countable income, and a veteran whose countable income reaches the limit receives nothing. The next section is the reason this is not as bleak as it sounds: what you pay for in-home care comes off countable income first, which is what lifts many Vermont families back toward the top of the range. Build your budget from the award letter the VA sends you, not from the table above.

Against Vermont's roughly $102,960-a-year cost for a non-medical caregiver, about $8,580 a month, even the full veteran rate covers only a share of part-time in-home care. It rarely covers full-time care on its own, but combined with other income it can keep a loved one safely at home.

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

VA Pension, including the Aid and Attendance increase, is a needs-based benefit: to be eligible, your yearly family income and net worth have to meet limits Congress sets, published as a Maximum Annual Pension Rate (MAPR). Because the benefit is keyed to income, recurring out-of-pocket care costs can be subtracted from your countable income, which can make a family that looked "over income" eligible after all.

The rule has a floor. Only the portion of your unreimbursed medical expenses that exceeds 5% of the applicable MAPR counts. For 2026, that floor is $872 per year for a veteran with no spouse or child, and it rises if you have dependents. In-home attendant care for daily activities counts as a deductible medical expense when there is a documented care need.

For example, the VA subtracts only the unreimbursed care costs above the $872 yearly floor. Because Vermont's non-medical caregiver cost of about $102,960 a year, roughly $8,580 a month, far exceeds that floor, nearly the entire amount a family pays for an in-home aide counts, often lowering countable income enough to qualify for the pension or increase the amount paid.,

Who Qualifies

To qualify for Aid and Attendance, a veteran generally must meet all of the following:

  • Wartime service: at least 90 days of active duty with at least one day during a wartime period (such as World War II, Korea, Vietnam, or the Gulf War). Gulf War service has its own length-of-service rules.
  • No dishonorable discharge.
  • Age, disability, or benefit status: meet at least one of four alternatives, any one of which satisfies this test on its own: be at least 65 years old; 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. A wartime veteran under 65 who receives SSDI or SSI meets it without any permanent-and-total rating.
  • A need for aid and attendance: need help with daily activities such as bathing, dressing, or eating, or be bedridden, in a nursing home due to incapacity, or have severely limited eyesight.
  • Net worth under $163,699 for 2026, which counts assets and annual income but excludes the primary home, a vehicle, and basic household goods.

The VA reviews asset transfers made for less than fair market value during the three years before you file, so it is worth planning ahead. A surviving spouse can qualify under the Survivors Pension version of the benefit.

Using Aid and Attendance to Pay a Family Caregiver

Because Aid and Attendance is paid to the beneficiary as part of the monthly pension, families commonly use it to help compensate a relative who provides care at home.

If you want a more structured way to pay a family caregiver, ask your VA medical center about Veteran-Directed Care (VDC). VDC gives a veteran a flexible, clinically set budget to hire their own caregivers, including family members and even a spouse, with a financial management service handling payroll. Eligibility requires VA enrollment, a clinical need for personal care, and risk of needing institutional care. VDC is a separate program from the Aid and Attendance pension, but the two can both support care at home.

How Aid and Attendance Works with Vermont Medicaid

Aid and Attendance is a separate federal benefit from Medicaid long-term care, which in Vermont is administered by the Department of Vermont Health Access (DVHA), primarily through the Choices for Care program. A person may potentially qualify for both, but the programs interact at two distinct steps. When Medicaid eligibility is determined, a state applies SSI income methodology to aged, blind, and disabled applicants, and under SSI rules a VA aid-and-attendance or housebound allowance is not income, so generally only the basic VA pension amount, not the Aid and Attendance increase, counts toward the income limit; states that use eligibility criteria more restrictive than SSI may count it, so the state's own rule governs there. Once a person is eligible and receiving long-term care services, income disregarded at that first step is counted back in at the share-of-cost calculation, and Vermont then applies its own list of "Allowable deductions from patient-share" at rule § 24.04: "When determining the actual patient share payable by an individual, the following are deducted from the individual's gross income," and that list includes "a standard personal needs deduction (PNA)" for an individual receiving Medicaid long-term care in an institutional setting, plus "VA payments for aid and attendance paid to a veteran residing in a nursing facility or to the veteran's surviving spouse residing in a nursing facility." So for a Vermont nursing-facility resident the Aid and Attendance payment is deducted at the patient-share step rather than counted toward what is owed, and the personal needs deduction is owed on top of whatever incurred medical expenses DVHA deducts. Vermont publishes no PNA figure in that rule, so ask DVHA for the deductions and amounts that apply to your case. Ask specifically about Choices for Care at home: § 24.04 writes the Aid and Attendance deduction for nursing-facility residents, so a home and community-based setting is DVHA's to confirm.

Because the precise treatment of VA pension income and the order in which to apply varies by situation and by state Medicaid rules, families should confirm how DVHA and Vermont Medicaid will treat the benefit before applying, ideally with an accredited Vermont Veterans Service Officer or DVHA.

How to Apply and Get Free Help

The steps here are the pension route: the VA says you may be eligible for this benefit if you get a VA pension. Form 21-2680 also covers Aid and Attendance that will be added to monthly compensation benefits, so a veteran who receives VA disability compensation rather than a pension should ask an accredited representative which route applies before filing anything.

On the pension route, you apply using Form 21-2680 (Examination for Housebound Status or Permanent Need for Regular Aid and Attendance), whose examination section a medical examiner fills out to document the need for help. A wartime veteran who is not already receiving a VA pension also files Form 21P-527EZ (Application for Veterans Pension). If you are still gathering information, you can send 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 file online at va.gov, by mail to the VA Pension Intake Center, or in person at a VA regional office, and an accredited attorney, claims agent, or Veterans Service Organization representative can file it for you. Asked how long a decision takes, the VA answers "It depends," adding that it processes claims in the order it receives them unless a claim requires priority processing. If the VA denies the claim, do not give up: you have the right to appeal, and the same Veterans Service Officer can file that appeal for you at no cost.

Do not do this alone. The Vermont Office of Veterans Affairs runs a Veteran Service Officer program for veterans applying for federal VA benefits, including VA pension and the Aid and Attendance allowance. Its certified service officers complete the application and make sure the VA has everything it needs to process it, and the VA says the services an accredited VSO representative provides on a VA benefit claim are always free. The program can be reached toll-free in Vermont at (888) 666-9844 or by office phone at (802) 828-3379.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Aid and Attendance be used to pay for in-home care in Vermont?

Yes. Aid and Attendance is paid in cash as part of a monthly VA pension, so the money can go directly toward an in-home aide, a homemaker, or other care at home. It is not tied to a specific facility, which makes it well suited to families keeping a loved one at home.

How much does Aid and Attendance pay in 2026?

Up to $29,093 a year (about $2,424 a month) for a veteran alone, up to $34,488 for a veteran with one dependent, and up to $18,697 for a surviving spouse. Those are ceilings, not payments. The VA pays the difference between your income for VA purposes and the limit Congress sets, so a household with other income receives the maximum less that income, and a veteran whose countable income reaches the limit receives nothing. Unreimbursed care costs above a yearly floor come off countable income first, which raises the award.

Does my parent's income disqualify them if it looks too high?

Not necessarily. The VA subtracts unreimbursed care costs above a yearly floor of $872 for a veteran with no spouse or child (higher with dependents) from countable income, so families that look over the limit often still qualify once in-home care costs are counted.

Can a veteran get both Aid and Attendance and Vermont Medicaid?

Potentially yes, but the programs interact. Generally only the basic VA pension counts toward the Medicaid income limit at the eligibility step, because under SSI income methodology a VA aid-and-attendance allowance is not income; the Aid and Attendance amount is counted back in at the share-of-cost calculation once a person is eligible, and DVHA must then take the deductions Vermont's patient-share rule requires, including a standard personal needs deduction for someone in an institutional setting and, for a nursing-facility resident, the Aid and Attendance payment itself. Which of those reach a Choices for Care client at home is a question for DVHA. Confirm your specific case with DVHA and an accredited Vermont Veterans Service Officer before applying.

Compare Care Settings in Vermont

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

Learn More

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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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