09-02-2022, 02:14 PM
Expansion to All Eras of Service Remains Set for October
With about two months left until a congressional deadline, Veterans Affairs officials said plans to expand
the caregiver support program to veterans of all eras remain on schedule, even if fixes to other aspects of
the program are still in limbo. Currently, the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers
— which provides a monthly stipend to qualified full-time caregivers of seriously ill or injured veterans
— is open only to veterans who served before 1975 or after 2001. But per a mandate from Congress, the
program must be opened to all families by Oct. 1 of this year. In comments to reporters on Wednesday,
VA Secretary Denis McDonough said department leaders are on track to do that. “We’re going to expand
in October,” he said. “We’re committed to that. It should have already been done by now, but we’ll get it
done by October.”
About 33,000 families are enrolled in the 11-year-old program. Doubts about VA’s ability to expand
it have surfaced in recent months amid other caregiver program turmoil. In 2021, in anticipation of the
upcoming expansion, VA officials rewrote eligibility criteria and reviewed about 19,000 legacy
participants to see if they still qualified for the benefit. Specific payout totals based on where veterans live,
but generally amount to about $3,000 a month for the full level two stipend and $1,800 for the partial level
one stipend. In the spring, following months of outcry from advocates that too many families were being
purged from the program, VA leaders suspended all program dismissals. Officials later acknowledged that
under the new eligibility criteria as many as 90% of the legacy participants could have been stripped of
caregiver benefits.
Since then, McDonough has publicly vowed to rewrite the eligibility criteria to better reflect the needs
of injured veterans and their families. However, no timetable has been set for when that work will be
completed. “We still don’t have those new criteria established, but the establishment of new criteria will
not impact the launch of the expansion,” he said. VA officials have said that once those criteria are
developed, they will be applied to existing program participants to see if the program participants still
qualify for stipends. However, all current participants are guaranteed to continue receiving benefits until
April 2023, under past promises by leaders.
Outside groups have complained that even after McDonough announced the pause in program
dismissals, local officials have continued to review families cases and warn that they could lose eligibility
in the future, even though the new program criteria still have not been developed. Past analysis of the
program have estimated that the upcoming expansion plans could nearly double participation in it. At the
VA web site https://www.caregiver.va.gov/support/sup...nefits.asp more information on the program
is available. [Source: MilitaryTimes | Leo Shane III | July 25, 2022 ++]
With about two months left until a congressional deadline, Veterans Affairs officials said plans to expand
the caregiver support program to veterans of all eras remain on schedule, even if fixes to other aspects of
the program are still in limbo. Currently, the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers
— which provides a monthly stipend to qualified full-time caregivers of seriously ill or injured veterans
— is open only to veterans who served before 1975 or after 2001. But per a mandate from Congress, the
program must be opened to all families by Oct. 1 of this year. In comments to reporters on Wednesday,
VA Secretary Denis McDonough said department leaders are on track to do that. “We’re going to expand
in October,” he said. “We’re committed to that. It should have already been done by now, but we’ll get it
done by October.”
About 33,000 families are enrolled in the 11-year-old program. Doubts about VA’s ability to expand
it have surfaced in recent months amid other caregiver program turmoil. In 2021, in anticipation of the
upcoming expansion, VA officials rewrote eligibility criteria and reviewed about 19,000 legacy
participants to see if they still qualified for the benefit. Specific payout totals based on where veterans live,
but generally amount to about $3,000 a month for the full level two stipend and $1,800 for the partial level
one stipend. In the spring, following months of outcry from advocates that too many families were being
purged from the program, VA leaders suspended all program dismissals. Officials later acknowledged that
under the new eligibility criteria as many as 90% of the legacy participants could have been stripped of
caregiver benefits.
Since then, McDonough has publicly vowed to rewrite the eligibility criteria to better reflect the needs
of injured veterans and their families. However, no timetable has been set for when that work will be
completed. “We still don’t have those new criteria established, but the establishment of new criteria will
not impact the launch of the expansion,” he said. VA officials have said that once those criteria are
developed, they will be applied to existing program participants to see if the program participants still
qualify for stipends. However, all current participants are guaranteed to continue receiving benefits until
April 2023, under past promises by leaders.
Outside groups have complained that even after McDonough announced the pause in program
dismissals, local officials have continued to review families cases and warn that they could lose eligibility
in the future, even though the new program criteria still have not been developed. Past analysis of the
program have estimated that the upcoming expansion plans could nearly double participation in it. At the
VA web site https://www.caregiver.va.gov/support/sup...nefits.asp more information on the program
is available. [Source: MilitaryTimes | Leo Shane III | July 25, 2022 ++]