Victor B. Skaar v. Robert L. Wilkie, Secretary of Veterans Affairs United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, No. 17-2574 A United States Air Force B-52 bomber and a KC-135 tanker aircraft collided over Palomares, Spain, while attempting in flight refueling on January 17, 1966. The collision caused four thermonuclear weapons to be…
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA, P.L. 116-92) allows surviving spouses of military troops who died during active-duty service or retirees who died from a service-connected cause to keep all compensation from the government. Prior to the new law, surviving spouses who received a Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) paid a dollar-for-dollar offset from their…
Contributed by Valerie Peterson, J.D. Lately we’ve been hearing attorneys say they no longer practice in the Veterans pension benefits area. This is unsettling, as there is a huge need to help wartime Veterans (and surviving spouses) obtain benefits that will help pay for long term care and there simply aren’t enough attorneys to assist them….
By Jill Roamer, J.D. The VAPT (Veterans asset protection trust) is a powerful tool that can protect assets while enabling the grantor to qualify for needs-based pension benefits. There are two sub-trusts within the VAPT – one is a grantor sub-trust and the other is a non-grantor sub-trust. Why is it structured this way? The…
When calculating an A&A pension benefit amount, some medical and long-term care costs can be deducted from a client’s income. This allows some veterans and surviving spouses who would otherwise be over the income limit to qualify for the A&A pension. One such allowable deduction is the cost of paying a caregiver, including relatives, such as adult…
The VA Secretary, Robert Wilkie, disputes the science panel’s findings on presumptive diseases caused by Agent Orange saying ASEM did not identify any “definitive causal links” between Agent Orange and the diseases, and at least two — hypertension and bladder cancer — have other risk factors besides herbicide exposure, such as age, diet and tobacco…
