In-Home Care for Veterans in Edison
Most veterans we talk to have the same question. Will the VA help pay for someone to come to the house?
The answer is usually yes, and there is more than one way it can happen. The part that trips families up is that the VA runs several different programs, and they work in completely different ways. One pays the veteran cash every month. Another authorizes and pays for the care directly. They have separate applications, separate rules, and very different timelines.
Here is how each one works, what the 2026 amounts actually are, and where to get help with the paperwork at no charge.
Four VA programs that can pay for care at home
Aid and Attendance (A&A). A monthly cash payment added to a VA pension, for wartime veterans and surviving spouses who need help with everyday activities like bathing, dressing, or getting around safely. The money goes to the veteran. You then choose who provides the care.
Homemaker and Home Health Aide (H/HHA). A VA health care benefit, not a cash benefit. The veteran's VA care team assesses the need, and the VA authorizes and pays for the hours directly through an approved agency. You do not need a service-connected disability rating for this one.
Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC). Support for the family member doing the caregiving, including a stipend and at least 30 days of respite a year for eligible veterans.
Veteran-Directed Care (VDC). Lets the veteran manage a budget and direct their own care. It is not offered everywhere, so ask the VA care team whether it is available.
Many veterans qualify for more than one. A&A and H/HHA are the two we see most often in Middlesex County.
What Aid and Attendance pays in 2026
These are the maximum monthly amounts for the period running December 1, 2025 through November 30, 2026:
- Single veteran, no dependents: up to $2,424 a month
- Married veteran: up to $2,874 a month
- Surviving spouse: up to $1,558 a month
- Two married veterans, both needing care: up to $3,845 a month
The net worth limit for the same period is $163,699, and that figure excludes the home and a vehicle. These are maximums. What a household actually receives depends on countable income after unreimbursed medical expenses come out, which is the piece most families miss. Care costs you already pay can lower countable income and help you qualify.
Current rates are published by the VA at va.gov/pension/veterans-pension-rates. The VA sets the amount, and the VA decides who qualifies. We do not.
How many hours of care does that buy? That depends on the level of care your loved one needs. Call us at (732) 710-4289 and we will walk through the real math for your situation.
Who qualifies for Aid and Attendance
Four things have to line up:
- At least 90 days of active duty, with at least one day during a wartime period
- A discharge that is anything other than dishonorable
- A real need for help with daily activities, or being housebound, confirmed by a doctor
- Income and assets inside the VA's limits
The disability does not have to be service related. That surprises people. A Korean War veteran who never saw combat and later developed dementia can still qualify. So can a surviving spouse whose husband never claimed a thing in his life.
Why Homemaker and Home Health Aide is a different animal
This is where families lose months, so it is worth being precise.
Aid and Attendance is a pension. Once approved, the VA pays back to the date you filed. So if a claim takes eight months, the back pay covers that stretch.
Homemaker and Home Health Aide does not work that way. The VA has to authorize the service before it will cover it, and it does not reimburse for care provided before that authorization. If you pay out of pocket while you wait on an H/HHA decision, that money is not coming back.
So the two tracks call for opposite moves. If your father just came home from Hackensack Meridian JFK University Medical Center in Edison and the discharge planner handed you a list of agencies (our guide on how to choose an in-home care agency walks through what to ask them), waiting on an H/HHA authorization before you start is the careful play. If you are filing an Aid and Attendance claim, waiting costs you nothing, because the back pay reaches your filing date either way.
One more thing worth knowing. The VA authorizes a set number of hours, and it is not always as many as a family wants. Plenty of the veterans we work with use their authorized hours and then pay out of pocket for the rest, so somebody is there on a Sunday, or for a few extra hours in the evening. That is a normal arrangement, and we can set it up either way.
Knowing which track you are on changes what you should do while you wait. If you are not sure which one applies, that is a good reason to call.
What we do, and what we don't
Comfort Keepers is an official VA provider, and we can deliver care once the VA authorizes it through Community Care. We are not part of the VA, we do not make eligibility decisions, and we cannot file your claim for you.
What we can do is sit down with you at no cost and talk through what care at home would actually look like, put you in touch with an accredited representative or your county Veterans Service Officer to handle the claim, provide the visit documentation the VA asks for, and adjust the schedule as things change.
Our care is nurse led. Brittany Minervini, our experienced Director of Nursing, visits the home, writes the plan of care, and keeps it current as needs shift. You also get a dedicated Client Care Coordinator, Roxanne Sturm or Paula Fleming, who is your one point of contact. She supervises the caregivers and works directly with Brittany, so you are not left supervising anyone yourself.
We will not tell you we can start tomorrow every time. Sometimes we can. When a case is complicated, it takes a few days to get the right caregiver in place rather than just any caregiver.
Where to get help with the claim at no charge
You do not have to pay anyone to file a VA claim, and you should not. Accredited help costs you nothing.
Middlesex County runs a Veterans Services Program with Veteran Service Specialists who do this every day and know what the VA wants to see. The county division that runs it answers at (732) 745-4051. You can also find an accredited representative at va.gov/ogc/apps/accreditation, or ask the social worker at your VA clinic. Veterans enrolled in VA health care can request Homemaker and Home Health Aide directly through their VA primary care team.
If your veteran is not enrolled in VA health care yet, that is step one, and it is VA Form 10-10EZ. You can fill it out at va.gov/health-care/apply, or the county can walk you through it.
Two guides you can download
Our team here in New Jersey wrote both of these. No cost, and we do not ask you for anything to get them.
The Aid & Attendance Guide, 2026 edition. Seventy-two pages on what the benefit pays, who qualifies, how countable income and the net worth limit actually work, and how to file.
The Homemaker & Home Health Aide Guide, 2026 edition. Seventeen pages on what the benefit is, who qualifies, the eight-step application, a copy of VA Form 10-10EZ, and the questions we get asked most.
The state veterans home at Menlo Park
Our office sits in the same town as the New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home at Menlo Park, at 132 Evergreen Road. It is a state run skilled nursing home for veterans. The state rebuilt it in 1999 on 109 acres, and it has 312 beds. The main number is (732) 452-4100. Tours and admissions run through (732) 452-4272.
We bring it up because families ask us about it every week, and because it deserves a straight answer rather than a sales answer.
If your father needs nursing home care, and he is willing to move, Menlo Park is a good place. It is Medicare A certified, licensed by the New Jersey Department of Health, and surveyed by the VA. Call and take the tour. That is not us being polite. For some of the families we talk to, it is the right call, and we would rather you hear that from us early than six months from now.
Two eligibility rules catch people off guard. The home is open to veterans discharged honorably from wartime or peacetime service, to a veteran's spouse, and to parents of a service member killed in action. For a spouse, she has to be at least 50, and she has to have been married to the veteran for at least ten years. Families find that second one out late, and it hurts.
We also know the building. In cases where a resident needs more care than the facility itself provides, our caregivers have worked inside Menlo Park alongside the staff there. That matters more than it sounds. A veteran can live at the home and still have someone of his own for a few hours a day, for the one-to-one time a 312-bed building cannot give everybody.
Here is the other half of it. A lot of the people who call us called right after they took that tour. They walked the building, liked what they saw, sat in the car afterward, and admitted the truth to each other: Dad is never going to agree to leave his house. Or Dad does not need a nursing home yet, and moving him into one now would cost him the years he still has at his own kitchen table.
That is the conversation we are good at. If the tour tells you your father belongs at Menlo Park, go. If it tells you something else, call us at (732) 710-4289 and we will walk through what care at home would look like, and what it would cost. And if he moves in and you still want someone with him for a few hours a day, call us for that too.
Other Middlesex County help worth knowing about
Three things families ask us about once the benefit question is answered.
The VA clinic closest to Edison is in Piscataway. The Piscataway VA Clinic at 14 Wills Way handles primary care, mental health, labs, and eye screenings, Monday through Friday, 8:00 to 4:30. The number is (732) 981-8193. If your father is enrolled in VA health care, this is usually where his care team sits, and a Homemaker and Home Health Aide request starts with them.
The county will drive him to the VA. This is the one nobody knows about. Middlesex County runs transportation to the VA medical centers: Lyons on Tuesdays and Thursdays, East Orange on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Call (732) 745-7456 or 1-800-221-3520. Rides are filled as resources allow, so call ahead. If you have been taking days off work to drive your father to Lyons, start here.
NJ Vet2Vet answers 24 hours a day, at 1-866-838-7654. The people on that line are veterans themselves, and they take calls from veterans, families, and caregivers. It is peer support and referral, not a crisis line. It is a good number to have when the person who needs to talk is you.
Questions we hear from Edison families
Does my father need a service-connected disability to get help?
No. Aid and Attendance is based on wartime service, care need, and finances. Homemaker and Home Health Aide is based on VA health care enrollment and medical need. Neither requires a disability rating.
My mother is a widow. Her husband passed years ago. Is there anything for her?
Possibly, yes. A surviving spouse of a wartime veteran can qualify for the Survivors Pension with Aid and Attendance, up to $1,558 a month in 2026, even if the veteran never received VA benefits. This is the most overlooked benefit we come across.
How long does approval take?
It varies. Some claims move in a few months, others take longer when documents are missing. A complete, accurate application filed by someone who does it regularly is the single biggest thing that speeds it up.
Can we start care before the VA decides?
You can begin private-pay care any time. Whether it gets covered later depends on the program. Aid and Attendance pays retroactively to your filing date. Homemaker and Home Health Aide does not pay for anything before the VA authorizes it.
Does the VA send a nurse?
Homemaker and Home Health Aide is non-medical care. Aides help with bathing, dressing, meals, medication reminders, and safety. That is personal care and companion care in our terms. They are not nurses, though at Comfort Keepers a registered nurse writes and oversees the plan they follow.
Talk it through with us
If you are not sure which program fits, or whether your father qualifies at all, that is the normal starting point. Nobody arrives at this understanding the VA.
We serve veterans across Edison, Woodbridge, Metuchen, Colonia, Iselin, Perth Amboy, Rahway, Clark, Linden, and the rest of Middlesex County.
Call (732) 710-4289 for a no-cost consultation. We will tell you what we think, even when the answer is that you need a VSO before you need us.
