Pennsylvania Amputee and Paralyzed Veterans Pension

Pennsylvania pays $150 per month to a veteran who lost, or lost the use of, two or more extremities. Like the blind veterans pension it is a state payment on top of VA compensation, with no income or asset test. The eligibility rule has an unusual structure that is easy to misread. 51 Pa.C.S. 7702(c): the veteran has to have suffered, in service, an injury or disease "which resulted in the loss or the permanent and severe or complete paralysis of two or more limbs, being defined as having at least two limbs with a 40% disability compensation rating or higher in each limb as determined and certified by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs". The Adjutant General's decision on eligibility is final. That 40 percent is per limb, not a combined rating. A veteran with a 40 percent rating in each of two limbs qualifies, and their combined rating will be higher than 40 percent once VA applies its combined ratings table. Conversely a veteran with a high combined rating driven by conditions other than the limbs does not qualify. The rating filter in this catalog works on a combined rating and therefore cannot express the per-limb rule, so this entry sets its floor at 40 percent as the closest available approximation and says plainly that the real test is per limb. As with the blind veterans pension, the veteran has to have been a resident of Pennsylvania upon entering military service, and the discharge has to be honorable or under honorable conditions. Apply through the County Director of Veterans Affairs for the county where you live. A veteran who qualifies for this pension will very often also qualify for the disabled veterans real estate tax exemption, since the loss of two or more limbs is one of that exemption's listed conditions. The two are separate applications and neither one offsets the other.