How to Get Paid as a Caregiver for your Family Member

A family caregiver helps a family member with special medical needs with life services. These tasks include cooking, cleaning, shopping, and medication management. Several government programs let family members get paid to care for veterans or people with disabilities.

• The Medicaid Self-Directed Care program allows qualified patients to manage their healthcare services, including letting them hire their family members to work as caregivers in some states.
• The Veteran-Directed Home and Community Based Services program gives veterans a flexible budget, so they can choose goods and services, including letting them hire family members, friends, or neighbors as personal care aides.
• The Aid and Attendance benefit program for veterans works in conjunction with the VA pension to help cover caregiver expenses, even a family member. Contact the VA pension management center for the rules and conditions in your area.
• Long-Term Care Insurance gives family members the option to be paid as caregivers. Some policies don’t pay family members if they live with the person they provide care for. Contact the insurance agent your family member purchased the insurance from for more information. Ask the agent for a confirmation of benefits in writing.

Government Services and Information

HIPAA and Caregivers’ Access to Information (Family Management Advisors)

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Families Caring for an Aging America. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Here is a collection of government financial supports.

Service Animals and Emotional Support Animals

Service and emotional support animals receive specific training to complete tasks for the needs of individuals with disabilities. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), dogs can qualify as service animals. The ADA has also recognized miniature horses for use as service animals.

Emotional support animals do not necessarily perform tasks but work as companions for people with disabilities. They are not service animals under the ADA definition. Still, some state and local governments allow people to take their emotional support animals into public places where a pet would not be permitted.

How to Apply for a Service Animal

Contact your medical provider if you believe a service animal may help. Find out if the ADA definitions cover your disability for a service animal. Your doctor provides the medical documentation necessary and will help you find an appropriate service animal training program. There are also many service animal training programs listed online. Before you decide on a program, research the organizations carefully.

What Service Animals Do

Common service animal tasks include:

• Guiding a person who is blind
• Alerting someone who is deaf
• Aiding and protecting a person having a seizure
• Alerting a person with diabetes, high or low blood sugar
• Assisting someone in a wheelchair
• Calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack

Learn Your Rights – Service and Emotional Support Animals

• Housing– Housing providers must allow people with disabilities to use their service or emotional support animals. This ruling is part of the Fair Housing Act. Find out the housing requirements related to service and emotional support animals (PDF, Download Adobe Reader).
• Public Areas and Businesses– Service animals may go wherever people with disabilities go. This applies to state and local governments, businesses, and nonprofits serving the public. Learn about the questions a business is legally allowed to ask about your service animal. The questions have to do with the rules about service animals, handlers, and more.
• Travel– The Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) allows people with disabilities with a service animal or emotional support animal to travel with their animal. Documentation may be required to travel with an emotional support animal or service animal for someone with a mental disability.

Service and Emotional Support Animals for Veterans

The VA provides trained service guide dogs for blind and visually impaired veterans. The VA also offers trained service dogs for veterans with disabilities other than impaired sight. Some veterans may receive benefits that include vet care and equipment. Learn more here about guide and service dogs for veterans with disabilities.

The VA does not currently offer service dogs for veterans with mental disorders like PTSD. However, as research provides more data about how dogs help treat PTSD and its symptoms, the VA may provide the funding. Get information on service dogs and emotional support dogs related to PTSD.