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Disabled Vet Plates and Placard — 24-Hour Meter Exemption, Any Rating

Any honorably discharged veteran the VA has declared service-connected disabled — at any rating — may carry "Disabled Vet" plates ($15 on top of ordinary registration) and the free MVC placard that exempts the vehicle from municipal parking meter fees for up to 24 hours.

Verified August 27, 2026

What this benefit is

Any honorably discharged veteran the VA has declared service-connected disabled — at any rating — may carry "Disabled Vet" plates ($15 on top of ordinary registration) and the free MVC placard that exempts the vehicle from municipal parking meter fees for up to 24 hours.

What it's worth: "Disabled Vet" plates for $15 plus ordinary registration fees; placard with a 24-hour municipal parking meter exemption

  • Purple Heart recipients are an eligible class for the placard and for the municipal parking meter exemption, in parallel with the disabled veteran route.
  • That route turns on the decoration rather than on a disability rating, so a Purple Heart recipient with no rating still qualifies.

Who is entitled to it

  • The VA has declared you to have a service-connected disability.
  • You were honorably discharged.
  • You live in New Jersey.

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. 1For the placard: submit form SP-47 with your DD-214 (or DD-215) and the VA award-of-disability letter at any MVC agency, or by mail to the Special Plates Unit. The placard and its recipient identification card carry the same privileges as the plates and recertify every three years.
  2. 2The placard exempts the vehicle from municipal parking meter fees for up to 24 hours when you own the vehicle and are in it — it does not open reserved accessibility spaces, which need the separate wheelchair-symbol placard.
  3. 3For the plates: ring the Special Plate Unit on (609) 292-6500 ext. 5061 for the application — the Disabled Vet plate is not something you order online, and it costs $15 on top of the ordinary registration fees.
  4. 4Free registration is a different thing from the plate, applied for at a different address. The Commission publishes two classes: a veteran without sight as a result of war service and eligible for compensation under N.J.S.A. 38:18-1, and a veteran with another service-connected disability who has qualified for a free automobile from the VA — the latter also needs a valid New Jersey driver licence, a vehicle fitted with the special attachments needed to drive it safely, and insurance from a New Jersey licensed company.
  5. 5If free registration is in reach, ask for that application on extension 5076 and post it with the Veterans Administration seal or stamp affixed. Once the status is established, every later renewal is ordinary.
Form
SP-47 placard application; plate application through the Special Plates Unit
File with
Motor Vehicle Commission — any agency, or the Special Plates Unit in Trenton by mail
Documents you will need
dd214 · va benefit summary letter
Periodic
Re-confirmed from time to time.
CorrectionSecondary summaries report free plates or free registration for 100% disabled veterans here. The Motor Vehicle Commission publishes neither. Its own plate list prices the Disabled Vet plate at $15, on top of the ordinary registration fees, and its free-registration classes turn on adaptive equipment or war blindness rather than on any rating percentage.
CorrectionFree registration is not about how disabled you are. The Commission publishes two doors and a percentage opens neither: war blindness with entitlement to State compensation under N.J.S.A. 38:18-1, or having qualified for a free automobile from the VA and driving a vehicle fitted with the special attachments needed to operate it safely. A veteran rated 100% with an ordinary car does not qualify — and one rated far lower, driving an adapted vehicle, may.
Worth knowingWhat the placard actually buys is metered parking — up to 24 hours free at municipal meters, in a vehicle the veteran owns, with the veteran driving or riding in it. Purple Heart recipients hold the same placard through their own documentation route, and an applicant who meets both sets of requirements must choose between them; only one of the two is issued.
Worth knowingThe disabled veteran placard does not open an accessible parking bay. The Commission says so twice: it cannot be used in spaces marked for a person with a disability, and a holder who is also eligible for the ordinary disability placard should hold both.
Worth knowingSeveral military plates are issued at no charge at all — Congressional Medal of Honor, Prisoner of War, Silver Star and Gold Star Family. The Disabled Vet, National Guard, Combat Infantryman Badge and Navy Cross plates are $15 each. If you are entitled to more than one, that difference is worth a moment.
Known gapTitle 39 itself is still unread. The legislature publishes the statutes only through a session-based Folio viewer at lis.njleg.state.nj.us, which serves an empty document to a direct fetch, and the reproduction this record used before has been dropped. The Commission's pages carry the fee, the placard rule and the free-registration classes, but not the statutory definition of a disabled veteran — so the "any rating" reading in this record's title rests on the absence of a percentage in the placard application, not on the definition itself.

Sources

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