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Five or Ten Points — at Every Public Employer in Idaho, Not Just the State

Five points added to the earned rating on a public employment examination — ten for a veteran rated 10% or more, a Purple Heart recipient or certain spouses — plus an offered interview for a disabled veteran rated 30% or more whose score reaches the hiring list. The preference is not confined to state classified service: Idaho Code 65-502(13) applies it to the state and to any county, municipality or other political subdivision, which is every public employer in Idaho.

Verified August 27, 2026

What this benefit is

Five points added to the earned rating on a public employment examination — ten for a veteran rated 10% or more, a Purple Heart recipient or certain spouses — plus an offered interview for a disabled veteran rated 30% or more whose score reaches the hiring list. The preference is not confined to state classified service: Idaho Code 65-502(13) applies it to the state and to any county, municipality or other political subdivision, which is every public employer in Idaho.

What it's worth: Five points on the earned rating; ten at a 10% rating or the Purple Heart, with an interview at 30% or more

  • Idaho Code 65-502(13) applies the preference to employment by the state and by any county, municipality or other political subdivision — not to state classified service alone.
  • The state veterans service publishes the ten-point trigger as a service-connected disability rated at 10% or more, or the award of the Purple Heart.
  • Points are added to the earned rating on the examination. The preference changes where you sit on the list, not whether you pass.
  • The offered interview at a 30% rating is separate from the points and applies where the resulting score reaches the hiring list.

Who is entitled to it

  • You served in the armed forces.
  • You are applying in this state.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

  1. 1Claim the points on the application. Five points are added to the earned rating on the examination for a veteran, and for the widow or widower of a veteran for as long as they remain unmarried.
  2. 2The ten-point class is wider than the name suggests: disabled veterans, Purple Heart recipients, spouses of an eligible disabled veteran who cannot qualify for public employment because of the service-connected disability, and unmarried widows or widowers of disabled veterans. They are placed on the open-competitive register in order of the final score as augmented by the points.
  3. 3At a current service-connected disability of 30% or more, ask about the interview. The rule requires an interview to be offered when the final score places you on the hiring list — and where more than ten such veterans place on one list, at least ten are to be offered interviews.
  4. 4If you were still serving or in service-connected hospitalisation while the announcement was open, an application is still accepted afterwards — submitted within 120 days of separation or hospitalisation and before the resulting register expires.
  5. 5A disabled veteran may also file at any time, up until a selection, for a classification whose register is maintained or about to be established — subject to not having been examined twice for the same classification, not already holding eligibility on it, and not serving in a competitive position at the same pay grade.
Form
Application for a classified state position
File with
Division of Human Resources, or the hiring agency
Documents you will need
dd214
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
Worth knowingThe points cannot manufacture a pass. The rule says in terms that veterans and disabled veterans preference points must not be used to achieve a passing score — they are added to the final score achieved in the examination.
CorrectionThe interview at 30% is not the same as the points, and it is the part most easily missed. It is conditional on the score placing you on the hiring list, and the hiring list is itself a subset — the top twenty-five on the register plus everyone tied at twenty-fifth.
Worth knowingAn unmarried widow or widower holds the five-point preference in their own right, and moves into the ten-point class if the veteran was disabled. Remarriage ends it.
Worth knowingThe same rule covers reinstatement after military leave: an employee relieved or discharged under conditions other than dishonorable is reinstated on application to the former position or one of comparable classification, without loss of credited state service, status or pay, under Idaho Code §§46-216, 65-508 and 65-511 and USERRA.

Sources

Why only one source type: The administering division’s own rule states the point values, the classes, the register placement and the interview duty. The statute site refused the connection this session, so the enabling code sections are named as the rule names them rather than quoted.

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.