otherstate

Your Town Must Support You — RSA 165:5, and the Burial That Goes With It

There is no state veterans emergency fund here. Instead the statute places a duty on the town or city where you live: a war veteran and their dependent family who are unable to support themselves shall be supported at public expense. A companion provision has the municipality where a veteran died bury them where they were indigent.

Verified August 22, 2026

What this benefit is

What it's worth: Support at public expense from the town or city where you live, for a war veteran and dependent family unable to support themselves

The department states the duty in terms of war veterans and their dependent families who are unable to support themselves.
The obligation sits with the town or city in which the person lives, not with a state office.
A separate provision has an indigent veteran buried at the expense of the municipality in which the veteran died.

Who is entitled to it

Your discharge characterisation is within the range these programmes run on.
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

1Go to your own town or city hall and ask for the welfare officer. There is no state office to apply to for this — the duty is municipal, and every municipality has someone who administers it.
2Say at the outset that you are a veteran and name the provision. General municipal assistance and the veterans provision are administered by the same office, and the veterans route is the one that names you specifically.
3Bring your DD214, your income, and the actual bills. The test is inability to support yourself and your dependents, so the office needs both halves of that picture.
4Remember your dependent family is inside the rule, not adjacent to it. A veteran applying alone for a household of four is understating the case.
5Ask a state veteran service officer to come with you or to write ahead. They deal with municipal welfare offices constantly, and a town that rarely sees a veterans claim benefits from the prompt.
6For a death: raise the burial provision with the municipality where the veteran DIED, which is not necessarily where they lived, and raise it before committing to a funeral home.

Form: Application to the town or city welfare office
File with: The welfare officer of the town or city where you live
Documents you will need: dd214
Periodic: Re-confirmed from time to time.

CorrectionVeterans here are routinely told the state has no emergency assistance programme. That is true and misleading in the same breath. What exists instead is stronger in principle — a statutory duty on the municipality rather than a discretionary fund that can run dry — and weaker in practice, because it depends on a town office knowing the provision applies.

Worth knowingThe word "shall" is doing real work. A town welfare officer is not being asked to exercise charity; the statute directs that a war veteran and dependent family unable to support themselves be supported at public expense.

Known gapNo dollar figures, income thresholds or duration limits could be read this session. The legislature's statute server refuses connections and every nh.gov host refuses an automated fetch, so RSA 165 itself was not read — only the veterans department's statement of it. Ask your town welfare officer what it pays in practice, and ask for the answer in writing.

Known gapWhether the relief provision reaches a peacetime veteran is unclear from the department's wording, which says "war veterans". Do not rule yourself out on that basis without asking — ask the welfare officer to point to the text.

Sources

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