Pennsylvania County Directors of Veterans Affairs

Pennsylvania runs its State veterans programmes through a director of veterans affairs in every county, and most of them can only be applied for through that office: the real estate tax exemption, Veterans' Temporary Assistance, the blind and amputee pensions, and the county's own burial allowance. The duty to appoint. The County Code requires the county commissioners to appoint a director (16 Pa.C.S. 15524, for counties of the second class A through the eighth class), the Second Class County Code does the same for Allegheny County (section 2123(f)), and Philadelphia, the only county of the first class and outside both codes, has its Office of Veterans Affairs under City Council in City Hall, which the Department lists as its county director. Accreditation. Under 51 Pa.C.S. 1731 a county director must hold VA accreditation through the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs or a recognised veterans' organization, attained within a year of appointment and renewed on VA's five-year cycle, with annual State training. The director's statutory duties are to be the local contact with VA and the Department, to advise service members, veterans and dependents of federal, State and county benefits, and to help complete the forms. The Department says county directors are accredited service officers who never charge for their help. County duties around a death. The director helps the county administer the burial allowance, grave markers and headstones and keeps the county's Veterans' Grave Registration Record. From Act 42 of 2026 (51 Pa.C.S. 705.1), a licensed funeral director, funeral entity or, for cremated remains it alone handles, a cemetery company must notify the county director within 96 hours of receiving the remains of a deceased serviceperson who lived in the county, and must give the family the director's contact details. The notice gives the county a chance to tell the family about the burial allowance, which must be claimed within a year. Find your county's director on the Department's list of county directors (revised September 9, 2026), or on the county's own website. Each county written in this catalog has its own entry for its office.