Veterans Assistance Commission of Lake County

The Veterans Assistance Commission of Lake County, founded in 1926, is the county's commission under the Military Veterans Assistance Act; see the Illinois entry on Veterans Assistance Commissions. Office: 1790 Nations Drive, Suite 221, Gurnee (847-377-3344; [email protected]), Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 3 p.m. The website's footer and the County's 2018 brochure still give the old address on Route 21 (501 North Riverside Drive, Suite 106); the Commission's own minutes and packet use Nations Drive. It also keeps an office at the Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago. Claims. Its staff are accredited by VA, and its attorney represents veterans at the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and the Federal Circuit; compensation, pension, aid and attendance, burial, Dependency and Indemnity Compensation and discharge upgrades are all handled free. The Commission reported about $38.5 million in new benefits secured in fiscal 2024. Financial assistance. Emergency help, paid to the landlord, lender, utility or hotel and never in cash, for a life-threatening lack of shelter, food, utilities, medication or transportation, or a work expense needed to get or keep a job. The Commission spent $163,602.70 in its last reported year, most of it on emergency hotel stays. - Once in any 12 months, for a Lake County resident with a bank account; a decision comes within 30 days. - The applicant must first ask Volunteers of America, Veterans Path to Hope, the Salvation Army and the local township, and bring each caseworker's signature or the name and number of the person spoken to. - Someone already receiving monthly TANF, AABD, refugee assistance or SSI cannot get emergency help. - Two months of statements for every account, proof of all household income including VA payments, and the DD-214 are required; leaving any out is an automatic denial with a one-year bar. Where it narrows the Act. The website requires an honorable discharge or "a General discharge without misconduct" and "more than 24 months of active duty service", and the packet says a DD-214 showing "less than 24 months of peacetime service" is not eligible. Section 2 of the Act asks only for a last discharge that was honorable or general under honorable conditions; the misconduct bar and the 24-month rule are the Commission's own. Burial. The burial page lists the county's up to $900 for the burial of an indigent veteran (Counties Code sections 5-27001 and 5-27002) with VA's allowances, but its VA figures are old: it gives the plot allowance as up to $762, the 2017 figure. For a death on or after October 1, 2026 VA pays up to $1,032 each for the non-service-connected burial allowance and the plot, and up to $2,000 for a service-connected death.