Department of Veterans Affairs January 23, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) proposes to amend its regulations governing entitlement to VA pension to maintain the integrity of the pension program and to implement recent statutory changes. The proposed regulations would establish new requirements pertaining to the evaluation of net worth and asset transfers for pension purposes and would identify those medical expenses that may be deducted from countable income for VA's needs-based benefit programs. The intended effect of these changes is to respond to recent recommendations made by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), to maintain the integrity of VA's needs-based benefit programs, and to clarify and address issues necessary for the consistent adjudication of pension and parents' dependency and indemnity compensation claims. We also propose to implement statutory changes pertaining to certain pension beneficiaries who receive Medicaid-covered nursing home care, as well as a statutory income exclusion for certain disabled veterans and a non-statutory income exclusion pertaining to annuities.