Washington VA Aid & Attendance

Washington gives VA Aid and Attendance a specific, two-sided treatment. Its excluded-income rule for long-term care treats Aid and Attendance, special monthly compensation, and housebound allowance all as third-party resources. When the state is deciding whether someone qualifies for long-term-care services, those benefits are excluded from the eligibility calculation.

But excluded for eligibility doesn't mean excluded everywhere. Once someone is institutionalized, those same VA benefits come back into play as a third-party resource when Washington calculates that person's cost-of-care contribution. Veterans and their families should keep award letters on hand and ask the eligibility worker directly how a given benefit is being treated in their specific situation.