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The Veteran Assistance Fund — Up to $500, Applied For By Telephone in Ten Minutes

A one-time payment of up to $500 from the Office of Veterans Affairs for a low-income veteran or family in a financial crisis, aimed at housing and utilities. There is no form to download and no portal: the office takes the application over the phone and says it runs about ten minutes.

Verified August 22, 2026

What this benefit is

A one-time payment of up to $500 from the Office of Veterans Affairs for a low-income veteran or family in a financial crisis, aimed at housing and utilities. There is no form to download and no portal: the office takes the application over the phone and says it runs about ten minutes.

What it's worth: Up to $500, once, for critical needs — the office names housing and utilities

  • The office describes this as a one-time payment for a low-income veteran or family experiencing a financial crisis, with residency in this state required.
  • It is aimed at critical needs. Housing and utilities are the two the office names.

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

  1. 1Ring the Office of Veterans Affairs during office hours — the office is open weekday mornings and afternoons, and says the call takes about ten minutes.
  2. 2Have the actual bill in front of you: the shut-off notice, the arrears figure, the landlord's letter. A specific overdue amount is a far stronger application than a general description of being short.
  3. 3Because it is one payment of up to $500, spend the call working out which bill it should clear rather than splitting it. Ask the office directly which need they think it best answers.
  4. 4Have your discharge paperwork and your household income figures to hand; this is a low-income programme and the office determines eligibility on the call.
  5. 5Ask on the same call what else the office can reach. It administers several other programmes and refers on to more, and one call is the cheapest way to find the rest.
Form
None — the application is taken over the telephone
File with
The Office of Veterans Affairs
Documents you will need
dd214
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
Worth knowingA ten-minute telephone application is the whole point. Emergency money that requires a downloadable form, a notary and a fortnight arrives after the utility has already been cut off.
CorrectionThis is not the same thing as the state veterans fund, which the office also runs. That one makes grants to individuals AND to organisations that serve veterans, and is awarded through a request-for-proposals cycle. If you are a veteran with an overdue bill, the assistance fund is the one you want.
Known gapThe office publishes the $500 ceiling and the low-income framing but not the income threshold, the asset test, or whether a second payment is ever possible in a later year. The legislature's statute server refused connections this session, so no V.S.A. section is cited here. Ask on the call.

Sources

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