South Carolina Military Family Relief Fund

This is a Guard and reserve mobilisation fund, not a veterans fund, and its gates are narrow enough that most applicants who read the headline figures will not qualify. Section 25-11-330(A) states the purpose: grants from the South Carolina Military Family Relief Fund go to families of South Carolina National Guard members or other reserve component members, including National Guard members of other states who are South Carolina residents, "who were called to active military service as a result of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks." The fund is filled by a check-off on the individual income tax return under Section 12-6-5060 and by donations; it carries no general fund appropriation. There are three grant types, in Section 25-11-330(B), and four conditions common to all of them. The common conditions, from Sections 25-11-340(A) and 25-11-350(A), are the ones to check first. A post-9/11 mobilisation of at least thirty consecutive days. "The South Carolina National Guard or Reserve component member was on active military duty for at least thirty consecutive days as a result of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks." Any active duty since September 11, 2001 counts as eligible active duty, so the connection to the attacks is read broadly, but the thirty consecutive days is not. A pay grade ceiling. The member must hold a pay grade "no higher than O-3, if a commissioned officer, or W-2, if a warrant officer", measured at the time of mobilisation. Section 25-11-340(B)(1) restates it as an exclusion: all commissioned and warrant officers at O-4 and W-3 or higher are ineligible. A family member in DEERS. Section 25-11-340(B)(3) makes ineligible "members who are unmarried and have no family members enrolled in DEERS". A single Guard member with no dependents cannot use this fund at all, whatever the hardship. Proof of residency and of the family relationship both come from DEERS rather than from documents the applicant supplies. A discharge condition that reaches forward. Section 25-11-340(B)(4) makes ineligible a member who, "at any time before the disbursement of funds pursuant to a grant application under this section", receives a punitive discharge or an administrative discharge characterised as under other than honorable conditions. The bar applies to conduct after the application. Active Guard and Reserve personnel and similar full-time unit support personnel are excluded unless called to Title 10 service. Now the three grants. The military status grant, Sections 25-11-350 and 25-11-380. A flat five hundred dollars, "unless the number of requests and fund balance necessitate a lesser amount as determined by the department". One grant per fiscal year and one per active duty order. Paid directly to the applicant, never to a creditor. The injury or death grant, Sections 25-11-360 and 25-11-390. A flat one thousand dollars to next of kin where the member sustained a service-connected injury or illness, or was killed, on the qualifying active duty, again subject to reduction if the fund balance requires. One grant per active duty order. The need grant, Sections 25-11-340 and 25-11-370, which is the largest and the hardest to get. It requires everything above plus two more showings. The military salary including Basic Allowance for Housing must have decreased "by thirty percent or greater from the applicant's civilian salary", proved with a civilian payroll record and a military payroll record. And the applicant must show a specific monetary expense already incurred or about to be incurred for clothing, food, housing, utilities, medical services, medical prescriptions, insurance or vehicle payments, proved with a bill, invoice, estimate or cancellation notice. The amount is capped at two thousand dollars per state fiscal year, inclusive of anything paid as a military status grant in that year, and no further application may be accepted within one hundred eighty days of a prior one. The department may waive both the cap and the waiting period on a written request showing justifying circumstances, "however, in no event may payments authorized pursuant to this section exceed three thousand dollars during any state fiscal year". Three thousand is the absolute annual ceiling. The thirty percent pay drop is itself waivable. Section 25-11-340(A)(9) lets the department waive it on a written request showing circumstances including "death, injury, or incapacity of the member, long-term deployment of the member, and unexpected expenses incurred by the member's family", but only "upon proof that there has in fact been some decrease from the member's civilian salary." Some decrease is still required. A custodial parent or guardian may apply on behalf of a member's dependent, on proof of guardianship of a dependent currently enrolled in DEERS. None of this reaches a veteran. Once the member is out of the Guard or reserve and the active duty order is spent, the fund has nothing for them.