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Restoration of Honor — State Benefits Back After an Other-Than-Honorable Discharge

Maryland restores eligibility for STATE veteran benefits, notwithstanding the discharge characterisation, where an other-than-honorable, general-under-honorable-conditions or uncharacterised discharge is attributable to PTSD or TBI, military sexual trauma, sexual orientation or gender identity, or other criteria in 38 C.F.R. §3.12. The Department of Veterans and Military Families runs a Discharge Review Board for it. Free legal help for a FEDERAL upgrade is available separately from the University of Baltimore Bob Parsons Veterans Advocacy Clinic.

Verified August 27, 2026

What this benefit is

Maryland restores eligibility for STATE veteran benefits, notwithstanding the discharge characterisation, where an other-than-honorable, general-under-honorable-conditions or uncharacterised discharge is attributable to PTSD or TBI, military sexual trauma, sexual orientation or gender identity, or other criteria in 38 C.F.R. §3.12. The Department of Veterans and Military Families runs a Discharge Review Board for it. Free legal help for a FEDERAL upgrade is available separately from the University of Baltimore Bob Parsons Veterans Advocacy Clinic.

What it's worth: Eligibility for Maryland state veteran benefits restored, whatever the discharge says

  • It restores eligibility for MARYLAND STATE veteran benefits. It does not itself change your federal discharge characterisation.
  • Qualifying discharges are other-than-honorable, general-under-honorable-conditions, or uncharacterised.
  • The qualifying CAUSES are PTSD or traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma, sexual orientation or gender identity, or other criteria in 38 C.F.R. §3.12.
  • The Department of Veterans and Military Families runs a Discharge Review Board at 16 Francis Street, 4th Floor, Annapolis.
  • For a FEDERAL discharge upgrade — a separate and larger matter — free legal help is available from the University of Baltimore Bob Parsons Veterans Advocacy Clinic.
  • What it is worth is every other Maryland benefit you were shut out of, which is why no single figure applies.

Who is entitled to it

  • You served in the U.S. armed forces.
  • Your discharge is attributable to one of the qualifying causes.
  • You are in Maryland.

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. 1Apply to the Maryland Department of Veterans and Military Families Discharge Review Board, at 16 Francis Street, 4th Floor, Annapolis.
  2. 2Set out the connection between the discharge and the cause — PTSD, TBI, military sexual trauma, or sexual orientation or gender identity. That connection is what the board decides.
  3. 3Ask the University of Baltimore Bob Parsons Veterans Advocacy Clinic about a FEDERAL discharge upgrade at the same time. It is free, it is a different process, and it is worth more in the long run.
  4. 4Once restored, go back through the Maryland benefits you were previously refused. That is the point of it.
  5. 5Do not be deterred by having been told no before. The Act exists because those refusals were happening.
Form
Application to the DVMF Discharge Review Board
File with
Maryland DVMF Discharge Review Board, Annapolis
Documents you will need
dd214
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
Worth knowingThis record exists because the discharge test on nearly every other record in this corpus silently excludes the veterans it covers. Where a Maryland benefit has refused you on discharge characterisation, this is the route back to it.

Sources

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