Aid and Attendance Is Not Income for Puerto Rico Public Assistance

This is a one-sentence provision with a large effect for a veteran on VA pension in Puerto Rico. Article 4G(c) of Ley 203-2007: where a veteran or surviving spouse applies for public assistance benefits that are conditioned on income level, the supplementary payment of Special Monthly Pension for Aid and Attendance and for Housebound status from the Department of Veterans Affairs shall not be considered as income for purposes of determining eligibility. Why it matters. VA pension with Aid and Attendance is paid at a substantially higher rate than basic pension precisely because the veteran needs help with daily activities or is confined to the home. Counting that increment as ordinary income can push a household over the threshold for the territorial assistance programmes that would pay for the very help the increment exists to buy. This provision stops that. Read the limits of it carefully. It excludes the supplementary Aid and Attendance and Housebound amounts. It does not, on its face, exclude the base VA pension, and it does not exclude disability compensation, which is a different benefit. It applies to public assistance benefits conditioned on income level, so it is a rule about eligibility determinations rather than a general tax or accounting rule. It reaches surviving spouses as well as veterans, which matters because Survivors Pension with Aid and Attendance is one of the more common VA benefits in an ageing veteran population, and Puerto Rico has the largest veteran population of any territory: VA's model estimated 73,146 veterans living in Puerto Rico in fiscal 2022, and 4,872 of them received VA pension in fiscal 2023, far more than in any other territory. If an agency counts the Aid and Attendance amount against you, cite Article 4G(c) in writing. Article 9 lets the Procurador del Veterano impose an administrative fine of up to five thousand dollars per violation on a non-complying government body or municipality, and Article 10 requires the Act to be interpreted in the way most liberal and beneficial for the veteran, with the more favourable provision prevailing where laws conflict. Federal rules on how VA pension itself is calculated, including the unreimbursed medical expense deduction that often makes Aid and Attendance attainable, are separate and are not affected by this article.