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A VA Pension Is a Door Into the Phone Discount — $3.50 From the State on Top of the Federal $9.25

The Nebraska Telephone Assistance Program pays a $3.50 monthly state subsidy on voice telephone service, landline or mobile, to Nebraskans who also qualify for the federal Lifeline programme. Receipt of a Veterans Pension or the Survivors Benefit is one of the listed qualifying programmes in its own right — no separate income test needed — and federal Lifeline adds $9.25 a month on bundled voice and internet or $5.25 on voice only.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

The Nebraska Telephone Assistance Program pays a $3.50 monthly state subsidy on voice telephone service, landline or mobile, to Nebraskans who also qualify for the federal Lifeline programme. Receipt of a Veterans Pension or the Survivors Benefit is one of the listed qualifying programmes in its own right — no separate income test needed — and federal Lifeline adds $9.25 a month on bundled voice and internet or $5.25 on voice only.

What it's worth: $3.50 a month from Nebraska on top of $9.25 federal on bundled service, or $5.25 voice only

  • The weight is the two subsidies together on a bundled voice and internet service over a year — $3.50 plus $9.25, twelve times — and assumes the household stays enrolled all year.
  • On voice-only service the federal half is $5.25 rather than $9.25, so the annual figure is nearer $105.
  • One Lifeline discount per household, not per person. A household with two eligible veterans still gets one.
  • Not every carrier participates. The subsidy is only worth anything with a provider on the commission’s participating list.

Who is entitled to it

  • A veteran drawing the VA Veterans Pension is inside the listed qualifying programmes.
  • The Survivors Benefit is named alongside the Veterans Pension in the commission’s own eligibility list.
  • You are 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. 1Get the federal benefit first. NTAP is described by the commission as supplemental assistance available to Nebraskans who ALSO participate in the federal Lifeline programme, so Lifeline is the gate.
  2. 2Qualify on the pension rather than on income if you can. The commission lists Veterans Pension and Survivors Benefit beside SNAP, Medicaid, Federal Public Housing Assistance and SSI as programmes that qualify you outright — the income route at 135% of the federal poverty guidelines is the alternative, not the requirement.
  3. 3Apply for Lifeline at lifelinesupport.org, or through your phone or internet company, or by posting the application with proof of eligibility to the Lifeline Support Center at the address printed on the federal form.
  4. 4Then post the Citizenship Attestation form, available from the commission’s site, to NTAP at PO Box 94927, Lincoln NE 68509. That is the step that adds the state $3.50 and it is easy to miss.
  5. 5Choose the shape of the benefit deliberately: phone or internet, not both, and one line either way. Lifeline can be taken on bundled voice and internet at $9.25, or voice only at $5.25.
  6. 6Check your provider participates before you switch tariffs. The commission publishes a list of participating companies and warns that not all telephone and internet companies offer the discounts.
  7. 7Have the proof ready. A VA award or benefit summary letter showing the pension is the document that does the work here; a rating letter showing a service-connected percentage is a different thing and does not establish a pension.
  8. 8If you cannot find a participating provider, the commission takes the question directly on 402-471-3101 or 800-526-0017 option 2 within Nebraska, or at psc.ntap@nebraska.gov.
Form
Federal Lifeline application (FCC Form 5629) plus a Citizenship Attestation form for the state top-up
File with
Apply for Lifeline at lifelinesupport.org; post the Citizenship Attestation form to NTAP, PO Box 94927, Lincoln NE 68509
Documents you will need
va benefit summary letter
Annual
Claimed once a year.
CorrectionThis is the state benefit Nebraska’s veterans department does not list. Its April 2026 Guide to Veterans’ Benefits was read in full this session — thirty pages, every state programme named one by one — and NTAP appears nowhere in it. A veteran drawing a VA pension who relies on that guide will never learn the phone discount exists, and it is the Public Service Commission rather than the veterans department that runs it.
CorrectionIt is the PENSION that qualifies you, not a disability rating. Veterans Pension and the Survivors Benefit are needs-based awards; a service-connected compensation rating, however high, is not on the commission’s list. A 100% service-connected veteran with no pension comes in on income or not at all.
Worth knowingThe record is marked as not veteran-specific because the programme is a general low-income one. It is recorded here because the veterans’ route into it is a named door that no Nebraska veterans publication points at.
Known gapNo Neb. Rev. Stat. citation is claimed. The commission publishes none against NTAP and nebraskalegislature.gov refuses every connection from here. The participating-companies list and the Citizenship Attestation form itself were not opened this session, so the current carrier list and the form’s exact contents are unverified.

Sources

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