Massachusetts Welcome Home Bonus

Section 16 of chapter 130 of the Acts of 2005 created what Massachusetts calls the Welcome Home Bonus. It is a one-time cash payment, it is administered by the State Treasurer rather than by the Executive Office of Veterans Services, and the statute says it is paid out of the treasury of the commonwealth without appropriation. That last phrase means it is a standing entitlement rather than a programme that runs out of money. The amounts are fixed and they are modest. A veteran who performed active service outside the continental limits of the United States in the Afghanistan or Iraq area, as those areas are described by proper federal authority, receives $1,000. A veteran who performed active duty within the continental United States, or outside it other than in the Afghanistan or Iraq areas, for a period of six months or more, receives $500. The service test names three operations: Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Noble Eagle. That list has not grown. Operation New Dawn, Operation Inherent Resolve and Operation Freedom's Sentinel are not in the statute, and a veteran whose service falls under a later operation name should ask the Treasurer's Veterans' Bonus Division how the office treats it rather than assuming either answer. It is an artefact of a 2005 act being left to cover a conflict that kept being renamed. The residency test is about the past, not the present. The domicile of the person on account of whose service the application is filed must have been in the commonwealth for not less than six months before entry into the service. There is no current residency requirement in the section at all, so a veteran who has since moved away can still claim. Discharge must have been under honorable conditions, which includes a general discharge under honorable conditions. Active duty for training in the Army or Air National Guard, or as a reservist, does not count as active service for this section. The bonus survives the veteran. Where a person who would have been entitled has died, the sum is paid to the decedent's heirs-at-law, and where there is more than one the Treasurer determines the proportions, observing so far as practicable the order: spouse and children, mother or father, brother or sister, other dependents. In the case of a person who died while in active service, $1,000 is paid on the same basis. No right or payment under the act is subject to the claims of creditors, is capable of assignment, or is treated as an asset of the estate, so it cannot be reached by a deceased veteran's debts. Section 17 of the act made section 16 effective as of September 11, 2001, so the bonus reaches back to the start of the conflict. How it is decided. Applications go to the State Treasurer on the Treasurer's forms. The Adjutant General certifies dates of service to the Treasurer. The Treasurer may accept a city or town clerk's written statement of domicile as prima facie evidence, and the clerks must supply what their records show on request. A false statement on a material fact carries a fine of up to $1,000 or up to three years' imprisonment, or both. There is an appeal, and it is unusual. A person aggrieved by the Treasurer's decision may appeal to a board consisting of a designee of the Treasurer, an assistant attorney general designated by the Attorney General, and the Adjutant General or their designee, and is entitled to a hearing after due notice. The decision of the board is final. Note who is not on that board: nobody from the Executive Office of Veterans Services. Two practical points. There is no filing deadline in the section, which is why veterans of the early years of the conflict are still eligible and many have never applied. And the bonus is separate from everything else in this file: claiming it does not affect chapter 115 benefits, the annuity, or any tax exemption.