Most VA benefit applications take 6-12 months to get approved and involve an extensive application process and ongoing monitoring to maintain the benefit. 98% of the time a person needs to already have home care in place during the 6-12 month application process in order to get approved. The cost of this care can be too high for many Veterans – in addition to the fact that the Veterans do not know if their benefit application will even get approved and allow them to be paid back by the VA for their care costs during the application process. The risks are just too high for many Veterans and their surviving spouses so they usually do not end up applying for the VA benefit.