VA social workers identify factors predictive of enrollment and variability in Veterans’ access to aid and attendance benefits

ABSTRACT

The Aid and Attendance (A&A) benefit is a cash entitlement for Veterans who served in the U.S. military to obtain personal care services. Our objective was to identify factors contributing to variation in A&A enrollment across VA Medical Centers (VAMCs). We used VA data to calculate the enrollment rate among older Veterans receiving a VA pension or compensation in 2015, then purposefully sampled social work leaders at 15 VAMCs with the highest (n = 7) and lowest (n = 8) enrollment rates for interviews. All respondents viewed A&A as an important benefit. Participants at high-enrollment sites indicated strong working relationships with Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) and Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs) with onsite presence and education about A&A facilitate access. Participants at low-enrollment sites indicated they desired education around A&A eligibility criteria and collaboration with VBA/VSOs. VA and non-VA social workers would benefit from education about VBA’s benefits, and this requires collaboration with VBA representatives.

KEYWORDS:

• Disability
• long-term care
• military veterans
• low income
• social welfare program

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Stefanine Gidmark for her work on this project and Portia Cornell for her thoughtful comments on the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States government.

Additional information

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Office of Research and Development, Office of Academic Affiliation Advanced Fellowship in Health Services Research & Development (HSR&D) (3K112021B) and HSR&D Career Development Award (CDA14-422).