District of Columbia veteran benefits
- Verified veteran benefits
- 11
- plus 9 general-law and correction records
- Counties covered
- 1
- every one has its own page
- Veterans in this state
- 0.03M
- Rating thresholds that matter
- 0
- each one opens something different
How to use this, in four steps
You are on step 1. Nothing is locked — browse everything first, then check the ones that look relevant.
See what you may be entitled to
Browse every verified benefit in your state. No questions, no account — everything is open.
Check whether you qualify
Open any benefit and answer a few questions about that one. We stop as soon as we know.
Get the letter that shows the finding
A VA Benefit Summary Letter configured to show service connection, the rating and permanence satisfies most offices without disclosing any diagnosis.
File before the deadline
Apply through the Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs; file between October 1 and March 31 to get the full year.
Which of these sounds like you?
Pick one and we will narrow the list. You can change or clear it at any point.
Two things sharpen this a lot
Both optional. Your county decides where you file and what a property tax exemption is actually worth; your rating decides which thresholds you cross.
Where do you live?
We use this once to work out your county, because property tax is decided county by county. No benefit is ever matched on a ZIP code alone.
Your VA disability status
What does my rating actually unlock?
Read the record for the test that applies in the District — the deduction is large, but it carries a household income cap most veteran exemptions do not.
2 likely, 20 possible
What you appear to qualify for — worth checking.
One question checks 12 of them. You can skip it and keep browsing.
Did you serve in the armed forces?
2 more questions could resolve others. We ask them one at a time.
Call for Hire — Non-Competitive DC Government Hiring, and It Reaches Spouses
The District hires veterans non-competitively into time-limited Career Service appointments at grade 12 and below, through a dedicated applicant pool. It asks for DC residency, more than 180 consecutive days of service, and an honorable or general discharge — with an exception process for discharges due to discrimination. It also reaches spouses and registered domestic partners of veterans rated 30% or more disabled, and unremarried surviving spouses or partners of members killed on active duty. An application stays valid for up to a year.
VeteransApplies statewideNon-competitive appointment into Career Service posts at grade 12 and below
Read it and check if you qualifyCDL Road Skills Test Waived — But the Window Is 90 Days
The District waives the road skills test for a Class A or B commercial licence where you were employed in a military position operating a commercial-equivalent vehicle within the LAST 90 CALENDAR DAYS. A DD-214 is accepted, so a recently separated veteran qualifies — but only just barely, and only for three months. It asks for age 21 or over, a valid DC non-commercial licence, two years of military commercial-vehicle driving, two years of good driving history, and a commanding officer's certification. Knowledge tests are not waived.
VeteransApplies statewideThe road skills test waived for a Class A or B CDL
Read it and check if you qualify$445,000 Off the Assessment — and It Survives the Veteran
$445,000 comes off the assessed value of the home — for total and permanent service-incurred disability or 100% via unemployability — under a household income cap. It does not end with the veteran: D.C. Code §47-850(a-2) extends the same deduction to a surviving spouse or domestic partner where the property was receiving it, or would have been eligible for it, at death.
VeteransApplies statewide$445,000 deducted from assessed value
Read it and check if you qualifyMilitary Retirement — Fully Taxable, But Survivor Annuities Are Not at 62
The District taxes military retirement pay in full. The $3,000 exclusion at age 62 that many guides still list expired by its own terms — it applied only to taxable years beginning before 1 January 2015. Survivor annuities are a different matter: D.C. Code §47-1803.02(a)(2)(N) excludes survivor benefits from District gross income for a person aged 62 or over at the end of the tax year, with no cap.
VeteransApplies statewideNo exclusion for the retiree — but a survivor annuity is fully excluded at 62
Read it and check if you qualifyHiring Points That Expire — 5+5, Gone Five Years After Separation
District government hiring adds 5 points for veterans with more than 180 consecutive days of honorable active duty and 5 more for a service-connected disability — but the general preference lapses 5 years after separation, an expiry almost no state imposes.
VeteransApplies statewide5 points on any register; 10 with a service-connected disability — within 5 years of separation
Read it and check if you qualifyNo District Tuition Waiver — Education Money Means the GI Bill Here
The District funds no tuition waiver or scholarship for veterans as such. The veterans office's pages offer claims assistance for federal VA benefits — compensation, healthcare, pension, burial — and list no District education programme for veterans.
VeteransApplies statewideNo District tuition programme — plan around the GI Bill
Read it and check if you qualifyTwo Points for a Veteran-Owned Business — and Only if You Are Local
A certified veteran-owned business enterprise gets two points on a proposal or 2% off on a bid. Certification first requires being a local business enterprise, and all preferences together cap at 12.
Veteran business ownersApplies statewideTwo points on a proposal, or 2% off on a bid
Read it and check if you qualifyVetsRide — Free On-Demand Rides Across the District
The District runs VetsRide: free on-demand shared rides for DC-resident veterans, operated by the Department of For-Hire Vehicles with the Mayor's Office of Veterans Affairs. It runs seven days a week from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., for trips to education, health, employment, food distribution and housing. The underlying statute, D.C. Code §49-1003, guarantees a floor of at least 15 one-way trips a month.
VeteransApplies statewideFree on-demand rides, seven days a week, 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Read it and check if you qualifyDAV Tags and the Free Registration — Two Different Gates
The Disabled American Veteran tag requires certification by the Commander of the local DAV organisation. The waived registration fee is a separate thing, requiring a VA letter saying total and permanent, and covers one set of tags on one non-commercial vehicle.
VeteransApplies statewideThe annual registration fee waived on one set of tags for one non-commercial vehicle
Read it and check if you qualifyCalled Out for a Civil Emergency? Enlisted Pay Doubles
When the Guard is called to duty for civil emergencies, the code sets enlisted compensation at twice the pay of enlisted personnel of the regular Army of like grade. Commissioned officers are paid at the ordinary regular Army rate for their rank.
VeteransApplies statewideEnlisted pay at twice the regular Army rate for the grade, for civil emergency duty
Read it and check if you qualifyGuard Tuition Assistance — Up to $20,500 a Year
The operating programme is the Major General David F. Wherley, Jr. DC National Guard Retention and College Access Program. It pays up to $20,000 of tuition plus up to $500 of authorised fees per fiscal year — $20,500 in total, or $16,000 a year at schools without a DoD memorandum of understanding. Eligibility runs from enlistment; the member must be in good standing with at least two years of service remaining from the last day of the funded course, and must apply at least 30 days before the course starts. Payment goes directly to the institution.
VeteransApplies statewideUp to $20,000 tuition plus $500 fees per fiscal year — $16,000 at non-MOU schools
Read it and check if you qualifyNo Free Vital Record for a Veteran Here — the Waiver List Is Two Items Long
The fee section for vital records grants exactly two waivers, both for people recently in or released from federal prison custody. There is no veteran waiver, no waiver for a claim against the United States, and no free copy for a surviving family.
VeteransApplies statewideNo veteran fee waiver — certificates are charged at the ordinary rate
Read it and check if you qualifyFishing Licence — Age Exempts You, Service Does Not
The environment department publishes a $10 resident and $13 non-resident fishing licence, and exactly two exemptions: under 16, and 65 or older. No veteran exemption, no disabled veteran rate, no active duty concession.
VeteransApplies statewideNo veteran concession — $10 resident, $13 non-resident
Read it and check if you qualifyDeployed Parent Custody — Deployment Alone Is Not a Change of Circumstances
A deploying military parent may ask for an expedited hearing and a temporary custody or visitation order. The temporary order ends within ten days of notice that you can resume; no permanent modification may issue until ninety days after deployment ends; and visitation may be delegated to a close family member while you are away.
VeteransApplies statewideExpedited hearing, a self-expiring temporary order, and a 90-day bar on permanent modification
Read it and check if you qualifyBurial Assistance Is $1,000 and Has Nothing to Do With Service
The District’s burial assistance programme pays up to $1,000 for burial or cremation where the deceased’s liquid assets did not exceed $1,000. The section never mentions veterans, and it states in terms that it creates no entitlement.
VeteransApplies statewideNot a veteran benefitUp to $1,000, general-population, subject to appropriations
Read it and check if you qualifyA Debt Collector Must Tell You in Writing That Veteran’s Benefits May Be Exempt
District debt-collection law requires a collector who knows or should know that funds are exempt from attachment or garnishment to say so in writing, and the mandated notice names veteran’s benefits among the protected sources.
VeteransApplies statewideNot a veteran benefitWritten notice that veteran’s benefits may be exempt from attachment or garnishment
Read it and check if you qualifyA Moving Child Keeps Their Place, Their Courses and Their Graduation Date
The interstate compact binds District schools to honour a transferring military child’s course and programme placement, waive prerequisites, grant extra excused absences around deployment, and secure an on-time diploma. Children of ordinary retired members and veterans are excluded by name.
VeteransApplies statewideNot a veteran benefitPlacement honoured, prerequisites waivable, extra excused absences, an on-time diploma
Read it and check if you qualifyNo Veterans Treatment Court, and No Veterans Navigator Office Either
The court system’s complete published sitemap contains no veteran page. Its criminal division page and its court navigator programme page contain no mention of veterans. A veterans navigator office page that search engines still index now returns 404.
VeteransApplies statewideNo veterans docket published — plan on the general diversion routes
Read it and check if you qualifyThe Word "Veteran" on Your Permit — Other Than Dishonourable, and Three Named Forms
An applicant for a District operator's permit who served on active duty and was discharged under conditions other than dishonorable may submit a DD Form 214, a WD AGO form or a DD256 form, and the Department of Motor Vehicles shall then display the word "veteran" in capital letters on the permit. The discharge test is deliberately wide — the statute does not require an honourable discharge — and the three named forms include the wartime-era paperwork many older veterans actually hold.
VeteransApplies statewideVETERAN in capitals on the operator's permit
Read it and check if you qualifyNo Gold Star Family Tag Here — the Only Military Tags Are Disabled Veterans and the VFW
The registration chapter of the Code contains exactly one veteran subchapter, and it is the Disabled American Veterans registration. The Department's own list of organisational tags runs to thirty entries and contains two with any military content: Disabled Veterans, in two designs, and Veterans of Foreign Wars of the US. There is no Gold Star Family tag, no Purple Heart tag and no former prisoner of war tag to apply for.
VeteransApplies statewideNo Gold Star Family tag exists here
Read it and check if you qualifyThe Placard Is Free and Runs Eight Years — but the Self-Certification Door Is Very Narrow
There is no charge for a disability parking placard, and a long-term placard is valid up to eight years. Disability tags cost $10. Self-certification at a service centre is possible in exactly two situations — an obvious missing lower extremity, or use of a motorised wheelchair — and in every other case a medical practitioner must complete the form, which must then reach the Department within 60 calendar days of their signature.
VeteransApplies statewideNot a veteran benefitPlacard free; disability tags $10; long-term placard valid up to eight years
Read it and check if you qualifyThe Utility Discount Runs to $91,800 for One Person — and LIHEAP Has Stopped Taking Applications
There is no veteran utility discount here. What exists is a general Utility Discount Program with an income ceiling most people assume they are over and are not: $91,800 for a one-person household in the year to 30 September 2026, rising to $173,100 at eight. It is worth up to $475 a year on electricity, up to $276 across the winter on gas and over $962 a year on water and sewer. Separately, and importantly, the agency has stopped accepting new LIHEAP applications.
VeteransApplies statewideNot a veteran benefitUp to $475 electric, up to $276 winter gas, over $962 water and sewer
Read it and check if you qualify
Does my county change the answer?
For the statewide records, no — the same law applies in all 1 counties. What changes is the office you file with and the local tax arithmetic, which we do not yet hold for District of Columbia.
Every benefit here was checked against the statute or rule behind it, and each page shows the date. This is an informational match, not a government eligibility determination — the responsible agency decides your application.