VA Caregiver Program (PCAFC): How Family Caregivers of Veterans Get Paid

PCAFC stands for the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers, the Department of Veterans Affairs' program for family caregivers of eligible veterans.

It is VA's route into paid family caregiving.

The work is the kind of in-home care Medicaid-funded programs can pay a family or household member to provide.

The difference is who runs it: PCAFC is run by VA rather than a state Medicaid program.

Department of Labor wage-hour guidance is a separate matter.

Its Wage and Hour Division says family or household members can be paid employees under Medicaid-funded and other publicly funded home care programs, with the paid hours and services set in a program-approved plan of care.

Our research did not establish whether PCAFC caregivers count as employees under that guidance; the PCAFC stipend is a VA program payment, covered below.

The program has a defined structure.

The veteran designates one Primary Family Caregiver and up to two Secondary Family Caregivers on the application, and the benefits package that carries the monthly stipend belongs to the Primary Family Caregiver.

The stipend is paid directly to the caregiver, and it comes packaged with other benefits: CHAMPVA health coverage if you are not otherwise insured, certain travel benefits, and at least 30 days of respite care per year for the veteran.

PCAFC is one route among several.

The site's paid family caregiver guide maps the Medicaid side, and VA runs a separate budget model called Veteran-Directed Care, covered at the end of this page.

Two people have to qualify: the veteran receiving care, and the family caregiver providing it.

The veteran side has two gates.

VA requires a single or combined service-connected disability rating of 70% or more, and a need for in-person personal care services lasting at least six continuous months.

The criteria spell out what that need means: an inability to perform an activity of daily living, or a need for supervision, protection or instruction.

The caregiver side sets who can hold the role.

A PCAFC family caregiver must be at least 18 years old.

At least one of these must also be true: you are the veteran's spouse, son, daughter, parent, stepfamily member or extended family member, or you live — or are willing to live — full time with the veteran.

Note the spouse line, because it surprises people who have read about the Medicaid programs: spouses are eligible as PCAFC family caregivers.

Spouse rules do not carry across programs.

Federal state plan personal care must be provided by a qualified individual who is not a member of the recipient's family — which federal rules define as a legally responsible relative — unless a waiver defines it differently.

PCAFC applications run through VA Form 10-10CG, and VA gives you three ways to file it.

You can use the online VA application (equal to VA Form 10-10CG), mail it to the 10-10CG Evidence Intake Center in Janesville, Wisconsin, or file in person with a local Caregiver Support Program team.

Before you file, settle the two things the form asks for: who the Primary Family Caregiver will be, and whether any Secondary Family Caregivers belong on the application.

A veteran can designate one Primary and up to two Secondary Family Caregivers, and each named caregiver has to meet the age and relationship requirements above.

How long approval takes is not something VA publishes as a fixed timeline in the material this article is based on.

If timing matters to your plans — a job you are leaving, benefits you are coordinating — raise it with the Caregiver Support Program team that receives your application.

The assessment is where VA applies the program's criteria.

For the veteran: the single or combined service-connected rating and the six-month in-person personal care need.

For each named caregiver: the age and relationship requirements above.

One determination carries real money: whether the veteran is unable to self-sustain in the community.

VA's regulation ties the Primary Family Caregiver's stipend tier to that finding — 62.5% of the monthly stipend rate, or 100% when VA makes the unable-to-self-sustain determination.

The assessment is what produces that finding.

The designations themselves are made up front, on the application: one Primary and up to two Secondary Family Caregivers named on the 10-10CG.

What VA's pages lay out is the criteria and the determinations, not a step-by-step visit schedule — the clinical mechanics of how the assessment is conducted are not something our research could pin down.

Treat the local Caregiver Support Program team as your source for what happens after you file, and keep the veteran's care records and the caregiver details you submitted within reach.

The stipend is a formula, not a flat national rate.

Under 38 CFR 71.15, VA defines the monthly stipend rate as the OPM General Schedule annual rate for grade 4, step 1 in the locality pay area where the veteran resides, divided by 12.

The Primary Family Caregiver's monthly stipend is that rate multiplied by 0.625, or by 1.00 when VA determines the veteran is unable to self-sustain in the community.

Two things follow from the formula.

The dollar amount differs from one locality pay area to the next, and it moves whenever OPM updates General Schedule pay — so a figure you heard from another caregiver may not be yours.

Check the current GS-4 step 1 rate for the veteran's locality on OPM's tables, or ask VA what your calculation would be.

The rest of the Primary Family Caregiver package, per VA: CHAMPVA health coverage if you are not otherwise insured, certain travel benefits, and at least 30 days of respite care per year for the veteran.

The stipend itself is paid directly to you.

Legacy families run on a transition clock.

VA published a final rule extending the transition period for legacy participants, legacy applicants and their Family Caregivers through September 30, 2028.

If VA counts the veteran's case in that legacy cohort, confirm with VA which stipend rules apply to your case rather than assuming the formula above.

One distinction keeps the numbers honest: the PCAFC stipend is a program payment set by VA's formula, not occupational wage data.

For what employed caregivers earn across home care settings, see our caregiver pay page.

PCAFC is the paid, comprehensive tier: eligibility gates on both sides, a designated caregiver, a formula stipend and a benefits package.

The local Caregiver Support Program teams that accept 10-10CG applications in person are part of how caregivers reach it.

What the general program offers beyond PCAFC, service by service, is not something this page's research verified.

If you are weighing support services against PCAFC's stipend, ask the local Caregiver Support Program team what is currently offered where the veteran lives, and what each one requires.

There is also a separate VA route with a different shape: Veteran-Directed Care.

Instead of designating and paying a family caregiver a formula stipend, VA gives the eligible veteran a budget, managed by the veteran or a representative with a counselor's help, to hire their own workers — which may include a family member or neighbor.

Eligibility runs differently too.

A veteran is eligible for Veteran-Directed Care if they are enrolled and eligible for community care, meet the clinical criteria, and the program is available where they live — and services vary by location.

If you are weighing the two, the practical difference is who gets paid how: PCAFC pays a designated Primary Family Caregiver a locality-based stipend, while Veteran-Directed Care funds workers the veteran hires from a budget.

Where PCAFC sits among all the paid-family-caregiver routes — Medicaid self-direction, state programs, VA — the paid family caregiver guide holds the map.

Career information, not legal, benefits or tax advice. PCAFC eligibility, assessments and stipend rules are set by VA and change through rulemaking — confirm current requirements with VA's Caregiver Support Program, and talk with a CPA about tax questions.