Peter Willis has spent over a decade helping veterans work through the process of filing for the VA Aid and attendance benefits.  These benefits are for any veteran who has served at least one day during a war period (not combat zone, just served in the period) and is at least 65 years old who needs advanced care.  The funds could help cover expenses like in home care, adaptations, equipment and more.  Reach out to Peter to learn even more!

Battle Buddy Podcast Guest Links:

www.myvaa.org

www.workwithpeterw.com

Battle Buddy Podcast Links:

https://linktr.ee/battlebuddypodcast 

Transcript from Episode 55 with Peter Willis:

Keith McKeever 0:04

Welcome to the battle buddy podcast with Keith McKeever. Welcome back to another episode of the battle buddy podcast today I have Peter with me, and we're going to talk about some awesome benefits, especially for those veterans who are getting up there in years need a little extra assistance in life? So, Peter, welcome to the show.

Peter Willis 0:26

Well, thank you very much, Keith, I look forward to being here. Yeah.

Keith McKeever 0:28

Well, tell us a little bit about yourself, Peter.

Peter Willis 0:31

Oh, well, I work for a nonprofit agency called veterans advocacy associates. And we assist senior veterans in getting all the benefits they deserve.

Keith McKeever 0:42

Awesome. So those, those benefits. Those are for people going into assisted living, or who extra need extra assistance, somebody coming into their house equipment and stuff like that. So can you outline what kind of what that looks like, I know, could be different, different pictures. But

Peter Willis 1:00

sure, there's a there's a little known benefit, referred to as aid and attendance. And this benefit is designed to get senior veterans a little bit of help with their medical and care expenses. And that care could be at home, that care could be in assisted living, it could be provided by family members, it could be provided by professionals, neighbors, anybody can provide the benefit. And it's a little known benefit. And it's great for anybody over 65.

Keith McKeever 1:38

So other than people over 65, just who qualifies just veterans over 65, or any other stipulations

Peter Willis 1:46

value, you have to over 65, and you have to have served one day during a wartime period, you could be the veteran or you could be the surviving spouse, and you are eligible to receive this benefit.

Keith McKeever 2:02

You and I know when we talked a few weeks ago, that's that timeframe where there wasn't a war is what like four years its population

Peter Willis 2:18

between Korea and Vietnam is the biggest period we have. So

Keith McKeever 2:22

yeah, not not very long, really. Which kind of a sad thing. Unfortunately, the way the way our history is gone. So so does a veteran have to be in the VA system to be able to use this.

Peter Willis 2:37

They do not they do not have to they could use their own doctors, they do not have to be registered with a VA at all, we will assist them get the documents necessary to qualify. To qualify, there are financial criteria and income criteria. But in general, we assist the veterans understand it and work to get them qualified. It's not a cap that you're not allowed to have X amount of income, it's just the ratio and formulas. And we plug everybody into that ratio formula and pretty much get most people qualified. We've got a 98% success rate. We've been in business now for 15 years, we've done over 8000 cases, and very pleased that 98% of them were able to get through the system. And

Keith McKeever 3:34

if you got a 98% success rate at anything, I think you're doing some some

Peter Willis 3:40

thumbs down the VA being the bureau bureaucratic organization they are you have to know the system and doing this as long as we have we know the answers they want the words we want, and how to position every case we have to get the maximum qualification.

Keith McKeever 3:58

Yeah, it's, it's quite the system. I don't care what what part of the system you're trying to get answers in or get help from. It's one of the problems is it just feels like you're banging your head off a brick wall every time you turn around. So, you know, it's got to find that groove. Right?

Peter Willis 4:15

Well, I mean, it's a marvelous, marvelous organization for the benefits that they bring to our veterans. They do but

Keith McKeever 4:23

it makes it really confusing. You know, I know, just just being in real estate, you know, the VA home loan, and there's so many questions about it. Sometimes it's hard to find the information. You got to read through pages upon pages of VA documents and stuff like that sometimes to even find the answer. And that's just one little aspect of it. So

Peter Willis 4:45

it's as good as they are. I mean, they are there not to give money away but to protect the money. And they you know, they will ask questions to make sure that you qualify and very often people answer the question Been innocently thinking they're answering correctly. And they're denied, and they have no reason or no knowledge of why they were denied. And we've got to understand the questions and the answers to get the benefits we deserve?

Keith McKeever 5:17

Well, yeah, I think it's important to say that when it comes to benefits, like you're, you're a person trying to get benefits for your knees. But yet, yeah, they do have to, like you said, protect the money, they have their system and their rules, and you just kind of have to find that, that path through that figure out what works. But because I mean, you can goof up and say, you know, the wrong thing I know, going through the claims process, like, you know, a lot of VSOs will advise you like, okay, what are your symptoms? What do you deal with? Like, okay, you need to make sure that you tell them exactly how this impacts your life? Exactly. Don't just go in there and be like, oh, yeah, we happen sometimes, like, when it happens every day, like, you're, you're not going to have success that way. Or if you check the wrong box, it's going to, it's just not gonna get flagged in the system, right, and it's not gonna, it's not gonna go through. So what,

Peter Willis 6:06

when we spoke last time, was really important to know that the VA is really got two systems are many systems of benefits. And there's one category called disability. And in disability you had to serve, your injury had to be as a result of your service, with aid and attendance you had has nothing to do with your service. And you did not have to be in combat. You could have been in St. Louis, during a wartime period, you could be driving your RV around the country, but still get the benefit, because you need a little help from your friends. It's not bedpans and polio shots, right? Yes, I need your help. I have trouble cooking, I have trouble making my bed, I have trouble getting to the grocery store. If you've got trouble, then this benefit will get you the extra funds to get you the support you need. They will supply you with the caregiver, they give you the money to help pay for the caregiver. And if you're a married veteran, you can get as much as $2,431 per month tax free. And that's going to take quite a bit of burden off your family and providing care for you. Simple veteran is qualifies for $2,050 per month, and a surviving spouse can qualify for $1,318 per month.

Keith McKeever 7:38

Thank you for highlighting that because, you know, I was gonna ask him about that. That's huge. Because, you know, I mean, I know I'm young, but I've had a lot of family members who have, you know, gotten old and passed away and you see all kinds of things that just happen as you get older. It it's it's unfortunate thing. Some people just get with modern medicine, they just live longer and longer. Well, there's no there isn't, you know, you just never know if you're going to live long or not. But I mean, I've got a friend who's 98 World War Two veteran still lives at home still drives a little hard to hearing these days. But he's still volunteers. You know, with our local Honor Flight network, you can't stop the guy. You know, but I've even seen like him and other friends and families and people, you know, eventually, eventually everybody's gonna need help with laundry, cooking, cleaning, getting up out of bed, maybe bathing, or just a driver to drive you around driving. My grandmother

Peter Willis 8:40

lose a driver's license, and they need

Keith McKeever 8:43

a little help. My grandmother who passed away about about 10 years ago, she made it. She was about 86. When she passed away, she made it almost 80 Without an accident. Not one accident, not one speeding ticket. And then all of a sudden, like overnight, it was, oops, bumped into the garage, tapped another car, got it got in a fender bender somehow scratched the bumper. Like it was like, whoa, what, like grandma probably shouldn't be driving now. Let's take the keys away. You know, it's because she was super proud of the fact that she had never, never, not once ever been pulled over not having one accident, nothing. But yeah, you know, eventually everybody's gonna need some assistance. It's just a fact

Peter Willis 9:30

of life. And the VA recognizes that and they, you know, they want their veterans to live with dignity, and therefore they provide them with the funds to be able to live in dignity. Now you're not going to be you know, fat, dumb and happy but you're going to be at least hold your head up and say, Hey, I earned this benefit. I served the country and the country is helping me now. live with dignity and with my friends and that's very important. No Hey, I think Keith, it's important that we handle veterans all over the country. In fact, all over the world, you could be in any, any place in the in the world that is the United States, province or state, and we will help you get the benefit. We do most of our work over the phone, we don't have to have a face to face appointment, we make the process quite easy. And it's veterans are so happy that we're there to help them hold their hand.

Keith McKeever 10:35

Ya know that? That helps. Because I could not imagine trying to take on the VA by yourself. Well, especially, you know, I mean, you talk about age 65. And up, and you think about people who really need to, you know, to help do might be in their 80s or 90s, and don't have technology, maybe they don't have a smartphone or know how to use the internet. I don't even know where I would begin to turn because Google is my best friend. And if I didn't have Google, I guess if you never had it, you don't know what you're missing. But, you know, I mean, how do you how do you navigate this and stay up on changes? As a veteran? If you don't have access to that without having somebody to say, I got you? Yeah, it's fine. And I'm here to hold your hand. So

Peter Willis 11:19

explain the options as options available, and you know, does it not only with just the VA benefit, but how does that VA benefit? Integrate with Social Security with Medicare with medical? You know, do if I do this, what happens to that? And those are all issues that have to be walked through strategically to get the maximum benefit for yourself.

Keith McKeever 11:45

I've never even thought about that. But yeah, that would, that would require a lot of careful planning, to, you know, last thing you'd want to do would be to, to jump on one benefit at the risk of the other one, you know, having a negative outcome, or change to it, you know, and, and then go through all this work, just to find out that you're, you know, losing money, or losing a benefit that would that would suck, that would be bad. So, yeah, a lot, a lot of things to navigate there. So, what's, uh, you mentioned something earlier? And I'm curious, because I'm curious guy, you said you help people all over the world, what's the farthest person you've helped away geographically from yourself? Would be

Peter Willis 12:27

Guam. Guam, okay. All right, we've helped a veteran in Guam, and they retired out of service in Guam, and they, they get the benefit, right? They need care. They're, they're a citizen, and they're in protected. So we got him.

Keith McKeever 12:43

That's a little ways away. Go home is not the place I would think of to settle down for the rest of my life, but teach his own right. So how long does it take to, to go through this process and file everything, on average,

Peter Willis 13:00

there's two phases, A, we have to go through the application process, collecting all the data. And then on average, takes two to three weeks for you to get your doctor's report, get the DD 214, understand your financial status, etc. And then once we file with, with the VA, the average right now is between 90 to 120 days that we say we would not have filed the application unless we were very, very certain they're going to be approved. So you can least have that level of satisfaction, then it's going to take about 90 days, VA will process the application. And then now you'll see money in the bank. Or the VA sends a letter to say that you've what we call the approval letter, or the and they send that day that the same day to send money and money travels by wire and mail goes by mail. So guess what gets there first.

Keith McKeever 14:04

Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's kind of funny that they do it that way. I was thinking as you're saying it like, Yeah, well, that letter is going to be two days late. Yeah. So.

Peter Willis 14:13

So that's amazing. I got calls. At eight o'clock in the morning, who's Peter? Peter, guess what money showed up in the bank? Yay. I'm so excited.

Keith McKeever 14:22

That's awesome. So you know, you mentioned DD 214. And that kind of sparked a thought. So my stepdad is a Vietnam vet. And he had mentioned that many years ago, I think sometime in the 70s, maybe early 80s. There was a record depot in St. Louis that caught fire, you know, and getting some records for some people is difficult. Have you have you seen a lot of that where people don't have their DD 214 or other records?

Peter Willis 14:47

Well, the two I mean, a they lose it themselves and then we have to get exactly. national records to find it. And genuinely now they've overcome that burden, they've been able to not necessarily find the actual DD 214. But they find a sufficient records to establish that yes, service that exists, then they're able to provide a document to support that. It's very, very rare, we're not able to support a veteran with something, you know, even if it's a travel pass to say, you know, here's my log that I was on leave x period of time, is a very often a sufficient trail to follow to find the documents necessary to file.

Keith McKeever 15:39

Yeah, well, that's, that's why they say, you know, like, when I was in it was, I was advised keep every, every document possible. And most of which I have digitalized at this point, as well. But I keep them locked up in a safe, fireproof safe. I've got gotten multiple copies digital copies in different places. Because, because I was thinking about that, because my stepdad told me about that a long time ago. And I was like, Yeah, I want to have my own records. I don't want to rely on the government. You know, of course, in this day and age, it wouldn't, it wouldn't be a paper copy that probably lit up and fire and be a server that would melt down. But you never know what's gonna

Peter Willis 16:14

happen. It's amazing. NPRC, you know, is still very, very much a paper in the file cabinet organization. They don't You don't plug into your social security number and up pops the DD 214 They actually physically go into the warehouse and walk down miles and miles of filing cabinets looking for it. So, you know, people who say, Oh, yeah, I think my husband was in Vietnam. Can you find his records? It's like, you know, what we're looking for here?

Keith McKeever 16:47

Yeah, you're not paying think about it can be a lot of records for a lot of people, because I think there's something like 18 19 million veterans, you know, in the United States right now. And, you know, a good majority, vast majority of them are in that 65 And up range, you know, between Vietnam, Korea and World War Two, so, you know, I'm sure none of their stuff is is digitalized? You know, not not their service records, you know, maybe VA medical records and stuff since then, obviously, but it'd be a lot so.

Peter Willis 17:22

So as you're slowly slowly digitizing, but it's still no long way. Yeah, that would be a

Keith McKeever 17:27

monumental task. of keeping up on my own stuff from my from my own house and my own business to keep that stuff digitalized takes work. So I can only imagine how many people and the resources to digitalize, you know, over you know, probably 100 years worth of records, you know, who knows how far back they've got? So I'm sure with National Archives, the archives, it goes back a long ways. But so is there anything anything else that your organization helps with? Or is it just the AID and ATTENDANCE stuff?

Peter Willis 17:56

You know, that's our specialty, and we we really help with anything, you know, if a person needs help with disability, we'll help them that a person needs a wheelchair, we'll help them with that if they need work if they need accommodations, but we specialize in that senior category, helping them find caregivers, helping them find assisted living organizations, and most importantly, helping them find the money to get what they need and deserve.

Keith McKeever 18:24

When it comes to the assisted living facilities. What What, in your opinion, makes a good one versus a bad one?

Peter Willis 18:31

Well, it really depends upon your requirements. Okay. Yeah.

Keith McKeever 18:35

Makes sense. Yeah. You

Peter Willis 18:37

know, there are veterans there are assisted living communities. That's like, you know, five star resort, where, you know, every day they've got activities, and they got buses taking you to the casino and buses taking you to the beach and going down, etc. And

Keith McKeever 18:56

not too bad. I mean, we're not signed up for that.

Peter Willis 18:59

Some of these places I go into, they got 50 yard swimming pools and gymnastic organizations. I move in tomorrow if I could. Exactly. Now, there's other people that why do I need to pay for that? I can't even get out of bed.

Keith McKeever 19:19

That's a good point. Yeah, yeah.

Peter Willis 19:21

Okay. So that becomes the second level of what your needs are. diet restrictions really happened to to determine what you want in your assisted living. Some? Do you like the food they cook?

Keith McKeever 19:36

Well, I mean, that's an important aspect to think about.

Peter Willis 19:39

We recommend everybody go have a meal there before you sign the contract.

Keith McKeever 19:44

Maybe check out the environment to go to the environment. As a realtor, you never know you don't want to go into an facility where your room might be next to the railroad tracks. If you're trying to buy three times a day unless you like that noise, or called the hours,

Peter Willis 19:56

how far the the community away from your loved one. lunch? I mean, will they have to drive a half an hour to come and see you? You may be very happy, but they're only gonna see you once a month because it's too hard to get to you. Yeah, good point. So that has a lot to do with it. And the, you know, the, then the final comes through, they have memory care. And Memory Care is a whole different service level of the kind of need you need. It's got to be a protected environment that you're not going to go wandering out the front door and get yourself hurt.

Keith McKeever 20:34

Yeah, I've toured a couple of facilities like that, where like, one wing is not memory care is very open kind of floor plan, almost like a almost like a hotel. And a lot of cases, you know, you got your door, you got your room, right. But yeah, the other side's almost locked down. I hate to say it, but almost like a prison. There's a door that's locked. keycode access somebody on staff all the time, because I need to hear about it. Like, I know, my community got like 30,000 people here, but every now and then you see it on Facebook to the police are looking for so somebody who's you know, elderly person with dementia or Alzheimer's, and they've wandered off and, you know, it's like, man, that'd be scary. I it'd be horrifying. To have a loved one just disappear like that.

Peter Willis 21:19

And they do, unfortunately, yeah. Yeah.

Keith McKeever 21:22

I mean, I would say it probably happens, gosh, I say in my community, I probably see a once a month, at least, that somebody's relative is just, like, disappeared. And it's like, well, I said, you know, luckily, we're small community. So they tend to get found fairly easy. But, yeah, I mean, all kinds of bad things can happen. So my grandma, one of my grandmother's, both both passed away, but she had dementia. You know, I remember her story that she had his Rubbermaid bowl soup in it. And she told my aunt, well, this is just awesome, because I can I can cook the soup, I can just fire up the stove right here and cook it. And she was like, No, you know, this is rubber, it's just gonna melt and cause a mess all over the place. You know, and so like, that stuff, scary, you know, he's not thinking about those things. Unfortunately, she passed, not too much longer after that. But you know, you never know what kind of danger somebody can get themselves into. And when it comes to a memory care issue, we

Peter Willis 22:17

hear so many stories of people forgetting to turn off the stove. So dangerous. There's another category of community, which are what they call board and care. And these are very often homes. And a home will have like six bedrooms in it. And each person will have their own bedroom with a central thing. And that has a different level of care, different level of environment, it's more community, but it's only usually only six people in the house. And then they ask interesting to, you know, to to take care of it, you got a higher level of one on one care than you might in a large facility that will hold you know, 300 people, your ratio of caregiver to personal requiring care is different. And that's based upon the you know, the length of time we've been helping these veterans, we learn all these little things and we're able to help the people understand them all those options for

Keith McKeever 23:19

Yeah, yeah, cuz it everybody has a different care of need. You know, it's, I mean, I, through the Honor Flight network, I've been around a lot of older vets, you know, and, and, you know, it's weird, as I've seen the Vietnam era vets tend to need more unique care, sometimes in Korea and Vietnam, Korea, World War Two vets, you know, sometimes it's there, they just need a bed to stay in and facility whereas some of the Vietnam vets have a lot of medical issues that require more specialized care treatment, medical staff, you know, facility that can handle those needs. So it's a case by case for sure.

Peter Willis 23:56

They say, you learn as everybody's different. Absolutely,

Keith McKeever 24:01

yeah, absolutely. I'm sure you know, it's, it's, it's got to be very rewarding for you to have a conversation with somebody, learn about them, connect with them, and then give them the resources they need that like, you know, in some small or big way, changes in their life

Peter Willis 24:17

changes their life. And mine, Keith, I mean, you know, the rewards I feel for helping the veterans I help. I mean, I've worked with veterans who landed at D Day, I've worked with veterans who were there at Pearl Harbor, and their stories and their spouses stories. And, you know, it's very, very rewarding and grateful and that I'm able to do it.

Keith McKeever 24:41

Well, I am glad that you're out there doing it and you and anybody else who works for the organization because that's an amazing thing that you're taking care of, you know, my brothers and sisters out there, much older brothers and sisters. But they need it, you know, and maybe one of these days a long time from now. 30 plus years from now. For more, maybe I'll need it. And I'm glad there'll be somebody there to help me walk through the process.

Peter Willis 25:06

And more importantly, you know, your spouse will benefit from it also.

Keith McKeever 25:10

Awesome. Awesome. Well, I've got for anybody who's watching, listening, I've got scrolled across the bottom, my va.org. But it'll be in the show notes as well. So if you need to get ahold of Peter, I have, I've got your website to their work with Peter w.com. So I'll have that show that in there, too. So if you need to reach out to Peter, ask some questions, get some help, whatever it is, whatever it is, it's there. So Peter, I appreciate you stopping by the show and tell us about this awesome benefit.

Peter Willis 25:38

Appreciate that, Keith, you know, no, no question is, is too small. It's better to ask the question understand it than not to ask him at all.

Keith McKeever 25:47

Exactly. Well, there's no such thing as a stupid question. I've heard that there is a stupidly worded question. But not a stupid question. No, no, that's what you're asking. So yeah, my

Peter Willis 25:57

mother said, I never got more stupid by listening.

Keith McKeever 26:01

That's a good point. So. All right. Well, once again, I appreciate you being here, Peter.

Peter Willis 26:05

Well, thank you for your service, Keith and appreciate you spreading the word so we can help more of those veterans. No problem. Thank you.

Keith McKeever 26:16

All right, there you go. If you if you need to help reach out to Peter. Don't forget, check out our website battle buddy podcast.net For more resources if you are feeling down and need some help. Don't forget the national suicide hotline number is 800-273-8255 or you can text 838255