Lehigh County Office of Veterans Affairs

The Lehigh County Office of Veterans Affairs is the office every Pennsylvania county must have: a director of veterans affairs appointed by the county (16 Pa.C.S. 15524). See the Pennsylvania entry on county directors. Director Thomas Applebach; Lehigh County Government Center, Room 230, 17 S. 7th Street, Allentown PA 18101; 610-782-3295; [email protected]. No walk-ins: call for an appointment, and do not send documents unless asked. What it does. It represents veterans before VA and the Board of Veterans' Appeals; takes applications for Veterans' Temporary Assistance and other temporary financial assistance grants for food, shelter, fuel and clothing, for a Pennsylvania veteran discharged under honorable conditions, or one who died in service or has a service-connected disability, after an unforeseen loss of income or rise in costs not caused by the applicant's misconduct; pays the county burial allowances (see that entry); and takes the State real estate tax exemption application. The real estate tax exemption sheet. The office's "Disabled Veterans' Real Estate Tax Exemption Program (RETX)" sheet is wrong on the test that decides most applications. - Income. It says annual income "including VA compensation, VA lump-sum retro payment, and any other tax-free income" cannot exceed $95,279. Since August 16, 2024 every veterans' benefit is left out of the income counted, the income figure is a presumption of need rather than a cap ($114,637 from January 1, 2025), and an applicant above it can still show need from expenses. A veteran turned away on the sheet's terms should apply. - The disability. It asks for "a total or 100% permanent" rating or blindness, paraplegia or the loss of two limbs. 51 Pa.C.S. 8902 reaches individual unemployability as a total rating; ask the office to say so. - What it gets right. Wartime service by VA's periods, residence, the home occupied and owned by the veteran or with a spouse, the unmarried surviving spouse, a new application after a move, and the State's review of need at least once every five years. It cites 51 Pa.C.S. 1704, the State Veterans' Commission's powers; the exemption itself is Chapter 89. See the Pennsylvania entry. The office's page links VA Form 21P-530EZ, the burial benefits claim, under "Claim for Standard Government Headstone or Marker"; the headstone form is VA Form 40-1330.