Can a family member who is willing to leave their employment for full time caregiving to a veteran be paid some wages from a&a benefits?

Before you leave your employment please read this. Here are some things to think about if one is trying to decide whether to quit work to care for an aging parent.... on average if a working person quits work he/she will lose over the years between $285,000 and $325,000 which includes not only loss of salary... it also includes the net worth loss of the health insurance coverage.... loss of money being put into social security/Medicare..... loss of other benefits such as matching 401(k).... profit sharing.... workman's comp insurance.... company sponsored life insurance.... vacation pay, sick pay.... tuition assistance, etc. [source: in part Reuters 5/30/12]

Thus, try to find everything you can to help your parents without forfeiting your own retirement funds. If things are deteriorating quickly, either the VA or Medicaid should help your parents with payments for a nursing facility. Taking care of TWO elders, each with deteriorating memory issues, could become quite impossible to do on your own.... you would be working 168 hours a week with very little sleep. No one can do that and survive.

I hope everything works out for the best and it is a win-win for you and for your parents.

Thank you! My father, a veteran, has alz and now my mom is developing dementia. In the last few months things have deteriorated quickly. Financial and medication problems are huge. I'm finally getting some help from the VA, God bless them. I'll call his social worker this week. I've been trying to find a job in their town so I could move in with them and help them. I own my home but could not buy one in their area for anyway near the price mine would sell for. Hope I can rent mine out and care for them. They only have SS for income and we can't afford assisted living facilities even if we could get my dad to agree to it in this stage of alz. I do have poa.

Yes, providing you get the forms properly filled out and sent in to the VA. Best bet is to work with a benefits consultant. They will tell you to fill the form in yourself and just have the MD sign it. Doctors are notoriously bad with paperwork.