Assisted Living Help

[Rando]

I have a family member who is in assisted living.  She is currently receiving VA benifits.  Her total assists are around 30,000, and the only other thing she has is her house.  The money is getting very tight and her 30,000 will be used up in the near future.  If she sells her house which  would she lose her VA benifits until her assets drop below 80,000.  We would like to sell the house and use the interest to help pay for the assisted living. The house is getting to be a burden with the upkeep and taxes ect.  We have considered renting the house but would rather sell and not have all of the worries that go with renting. Is it possible to sell and put the money in a trust account and draw from that.

[veteranadvocate]

Attached is some information regarding the sale of personal property.  You may want to contact an Elder Law attorney to see about putting some of the proceeds of the house into a trust.  This is out of my field of expertise but I know there are avenues.

As the attachment states, if you rent the property then that will be counted as income and there is an annual form that must be completed to show income, expenses, net income, etc.  It would be a pain to keep track of all of this.

Sorry I could not be of more assistance.