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Military Family Relief Fund — $2,000 Need-Based, $500 on Status, $1,000 on Casualty

Three statutory grants from a state fund for Guard and Reserve members mobilised since 11 September 2001 — a need-based grant capped at $2,000 a fiscal year, a flat $500 status grant, and a flat $1,000 grant where the member was wounded, killed, captured or reported missing.

Verified August 22, 2026

What this benefit is

Three statutory grants from a state fund for Guard and Reserve members mobilised since 11 September 2001 — a need-based grant capped at $2,000 a fiscal year, a flat $500 status grant, and a flat $1,000 grant where the member was wounded, killed, captured or reported missing.

What it's worth: Up to $2,000 a fiscal year need-based, $3,000 with a waiver; $500 status; $1,000 casualty

  • The need-based grant is capped at $2,000 in a fiscal year, raised to $3,000 where the department grants a waiver (§25-11-370).
  • The status grant is a flat $500 and the casualty grant a flat $1,000, both reduced pro rata if the fund cannot meet every award (§§25-11-380, 25-11-390).
  • No new need-based application may be filed within 180 days of the previous one.
  • The headline figure shown is the need-based ceiling because it is the largest and the only one that repeats within a year.

Who is entitled to it

  • The member applies, and the next of kin applies where the member was wounded, killed, captured or reported missing.
  • The discharge characterisation does not bar the application.
  • Your home is in South Carolina.

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. 1Check the rank ceiling first — pay grade may not exceed O-3 for a commissioned officer or W-2 for a warrant officer. It is the test that rules out most applicants who otherwise fit.
  2. 2Check the service test: membership of the Guard or another Reserve component, and at least thirty consecutive days of active duty from 11 September 2001 onward. The department may waive the thirty days on a casualty application, with written justification.
  3. 3For the need-based grant, be ready to show military salary fell by 30% or more against civilian employment, and to name the expenses — clothing, food, housing, utilities, medical care, insurance or vehicle payments.
  4. 4Sign the statement confirming what the grant will be used for. It is a stated condition, not paperwork.
  5. 5Authorise the DEERS check. Dependants must be enrolled in DEERS, and an unmarried member with no enrolled dependants is disqualified.
  6. 6Send a complete application. The department returns incomplete applications and expedites complete ones; a denial letter comes within thirty days and must point you to other relief.
Form
The department’s application form for the relevant grant type
File with
South Carolina Department of Veterans' Affairs
Documents you will need
dd214
Re-file every year
Entitlement is retested annually. Missing a year costs that year.
CorrectionThe name suggests a general emergency fund and it is not one. Every route in requires Guard or Reserve membership plus thirty or more consecutive days of active duty since 11 September 2001, so a veteran of an earlier era is outside it.
CorrectionA full-time Active Guard and Reserve member is expressly disqualified, as is an unmarried member with no dependants enrolled in DEERS.
Worth knowingPayment goes to the applicant. All three grant sections say the payment is direct and not to creditors — the opposite of how several other states write their emergency grants.
Worth knowingThe fund can only pay out what it holds: §25-11-320 makes the fund balance the ceiling for disbursements, and the flat grants are reduced pro rata when money runs short.
Known gapThe separate Veterans’ Trust Fund in chapter 21 is a grant-maker to organisations, not a source of direct payments to individuals — §25-11-330 style grant criteria there run to charitable bodies, service organisations and county veterans affairs officers. It is recorded as a candidate, not as a benefit you can apply for.

Sources

Why only one source type: Read from the General Assembly's own publication of the Code. The department's own pages refused every connection from this session, so no application form, current appropriation or processing guidance is described here.

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