Who makes the AA decision for Deceased WWII Vet's Spouse

[bigmuny]

A Claim was sent to the RO for my elderly mother to receive Aid & Attendance on my deceased father's WWII service record.  Although she is not eligible for DIC she should be ok for AA.  While checking on the status of her claim she was informed that the Milwaukee Pension Management Center was handling her claim.  I am wondering if this is the correct office to be handling her claim, has anyone else who's parent has filed for AA had that office handle the claim or was it the RO where they live?

Initially she filed for DIC and Aid and Attendance but was denied both because her income was too much.  After discussing it with a Vet Rep of a retirement center she lives in he informed us that our mistake was claiming all of her income and what we needed to do was declare her income as what she pays the facility to live there, so that is what we did and that would make her eligible for the highest award for AA.  Still not sure if the PMC is where her claim should be decided.
Thanks for insight.

[VSR]

Howdy!

The jurisdiction of a claim for death benefits and pension is based on where the veteran's claims file is located.  There are three pension centers, one in St. Paul, one in Milwaukee, and one in Philly.  VA consolidated the pension claims into these three offices because they wanted to consolidate the talent and knowledge of the pension program into one office.  Because there are far fewer vets receiving pension than comp, not many people in each regional office had strong grasps of how to adjudicate pension claims.  Feel free to respond if you have questions.

[bigmuny]

Hi Max..
About a year ago my mother had a claim filed for her based on my father's death in that he died as a result of smoking in which the Army back then passed out cigarettes to the soldiers, he ended up acquiring COPD..anyway it was found that they stopped awarding favorable decisions for this some years back so the claim was withdrawn.  But I read where other's have filed for a non-service connected pension and Aid and Attendance.  Can my mother file for the NSC Pension and still have the AA decided independently or should she wait until a decision is rendered on the AA claim.  The first pension claim was filed over a year ago and the AA was filed in May 2009 but haven't heard anything about it yet.  She is 82 yr old and has Stage 4 cancer so her life expectancy is short to say the least so maybe that is what they are waiting on.
What are your thoughts on this??

[VSR]

Well if they decide on the A&A, the pension claim is decided at the same time.  There isn't much of an advantage to applying for pension first.  I'm assuming that if you applied for pension a year ago, you have probably gotten denied once already?