Cumberland County Office of Veterans Affairs & Services

The Office of Veterans Affairs & Services (OVAS) is the office every Pennsylvania county must have: a director of veterans affairs appointed by the commissioners (16 Pa.C.S. 15524) and holding VA accreditation (51 Pa.C.S. 1731). See the Pennsylvania entry on county directors. It serves about 18,000 veterans, is accredited with VA to file claims and represent claimants through appeals to the Board of Veterans' Appeals, and is led by Director Keeter Kallam. How to reach it. 20 N. Hanover Street, Suite 103, Carlisle PA 17013 (mail to 1 Courthouse Square); 717-240-6178; [email protected]; weekdays 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. What it does. Federal claims and appeals; the county burial and headstone allowances, flag holders and Memorial Day flags (see that entry); and the State programmes that go through a county director: Veterans' Temporary Assistance, the educational gratuity, the real estate tax exemption, and the blind and the amputee and paralyzed veterans' pensions. The free veterans shuttle to Lebanon has its own entry. Lines on the State Benefits page to read with care. The tax exemption is described as for a veteran with "a 100% service-connected disability rating". 51 Pa.C.S. 8902(a)(2) also covers a wartime veteran whose disability VA has declared total, which includes individual unemployability, and one who is blind, paraplegic or has lost two or more limbs from service, at any rating. See the Pennsylvania entry. Temporary assistance is described as up to $1,600 in twelve months for "food, shelter, fuel and clothing", the words of the State Department's own page. Since Act 109 of 2016 the statute's "necessities of living" also take in water, health care, a personal vehicle, essential furnishings, utilities, transportation, communication and laundry, to the extent other programmes do not provide them (51 Pa.C.S. 8501), and the Department's list of expense proofs includes most of them. The amputee and paralyzed veterans' pension is described correctly, with the 40% rating in each of two limbs. Treatment courts. The county has no veterans court; a veteran with a criminal case can be referred to the Drug Treatment Court, TOMS (Together Optimizing Mental Health Solutions) Court or DUI Court at [email protected].