Fourth Judicial District Veterans Treatment Court (Pottawattamie County)
Iowa’s Fourth Judicial District veterans treatment court, started in 2023, serves nine western Iowa counties from Pottawattamie; applications go to the VTC prosecutor at the…
VetTOC · Veteran benefits reference
Pottawattamie County, Iowa
Free help with a VA claim
- Pottawattamie County Veterans Service Office. The Pottawattamie County Veterans Service Office in Council Bluffs runs two programmes, Veteran Emergency Assistance (county and state) and Veteran Services (federal), with nationally accredited caseworkers, and takes applications for the Korean government’s Ambassador for Peace Medal. www.pottcounty-ia.gov/veteran_affairs
- Iowa County Veterans Service Offices. All 99 counties must run a veteran affairs office in a county building, staffed a minimum number of hours a week by an accredited officer whose services are free by statute, and a county cannot fold the function into another agency. The state pays each county $10,000 a year for it and $3,000 for national training, and withholds the $10,000 from a county that misses its hours. www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/35B.pdf
- Iowa Makes Charging for Claim Help Unlawful. Iowa chapter 546B makes it a consumer fraud violation to take compensation for advising or assisting with a veterans benefit matter except as federal law permits, to take a referral fee for sending a veteran to an accredited representative, or to guarantee a benefit level. Anyone advertising a veterans benefits seminar must read out and print a specific disclaimer. www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/546B.pdf
Find a VA-accredited representative: www.va.gov/get-help-from-accredited-representative/find-rep
Pottawattamie County benefits
Iowa benefits that apply here
Iowa County Assistance and Burial for an Indigent Veteran
A county board of supervisors may appropriate money for food, clothing, shelter, utilities, medical benefits and a funeral for an indigent veteran and their indigent spouse,…
Iowa Disability Parking for a Veteran
Iowa will accept a VA certification of disability in place of a physician statement for a disability parking permit.
Iowa Disabled Veteran Homestead Tax Credit
A credit equal to the entire amount of property tax levied on the homestead, with no cap on the value.
Gate: A permanent 100 percent service-connected rating; Or individual unemployability paid at the 100 percent rate
Iowa Driver’s License Veteran Designation
An honorably discharged veteran may have the word VETERAN marked prominently on the face of an Iowa driver’s license.
Iowa Excludes All Military Pay and All Military Retirement Pay
Iowa subtracts all federal active duty pay, all military retirement pay, and all Survivor Benefit Plan annuities from state taxable income, with no age test and no dollar cap, on…
Iowa Expedited Professional Licensure for Veterans and Military Spouses
Every Iowa licensing board must expedite an application from a veteran or from the spouse of an active duty member who holds a similar licence in another state, and must issue a…
Iowa Free Public School After Twenty-One for a Veteran
Iowa public school is tuition free to a resident veteran past the usual age-21 cutoff, for as many months after turning twenty-one as the veteran spent in the armed forces before…
Iowa Hunting and Fishing Licenses for Veterans
A $5 annual fishing or combined hunting and fishing licence for any Iowa resident who served on federal active duty, and a $5 lifetime version for one who was disabled or a…
Gate: The $5 lifetime licence needs only entitlement to a service-connected rating
Iowa IPERS Military Service Credit Purchase
A vested or retired member of the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System with at least one full calendar year of covered wages may buy service credit for active duty military…
Iowa Injured Veterans Grant
Up to $10,000 paid in $2,500 increments so a family can be with a service member injured in the line of duty after September 11, 2001.
Iowa Insurance Mandate for Veteran Mental Health and Substance Use Treatment
A group health policy issued to an Iowa employer with more than fifty full-time equivalent employees must cover mental illness and substance use disorder treatment for an insured…
Iowa Lets a Private Employer Prefer Veterans
A private Iowa employer may give hiring and promotion preference to a veteran, to the spouse of a veteran with a permanent compensable service-connected disability, and to the…
Iowa Local Cemetery Access and Unclaimed Veteran Remains
A city or county cemetery in Iowa must let any veteran who owns land or lives in that jurisdiction buy an interment space and be buried there, plus a space for a spouse, and must…
Iowa Military Homeownership Assistance
A $5,000 grant toward buying a home in Iowa, administered by the Iowa Finance Authority, for a service member or veteran with 90 days of active duty after September 11, 2001 or…
Iowa Military License Plates and Registration Fee Exemptions
One set of any military plate is free, but the $5 annual special plate fee and the regular annual registration fee still apply, so a military plate costs $5 a year more than a…
Iowa Military Service Property Tax Exemption
$4,000 of taxable value exempted, which is roughly $100 to $150 of tax a year rather than $4,000.
Iowa Municipal Civil Service Veterans Preference Points
Five percentage points added to a passing examination score, and five more for a service-connected disability or for receiving any VA compensation, disability benefit or pension.
Iowa Operation Recognition Honorary High School Diploma
An honorary high school diploma, naming the school you attended, for a veteran of World War I, World War II, Korea or Vietnam who left school to enter military service and never…
Iowa Programs for a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Business
A business at least 51 percent owned, operated and actively managed by service-disabled veterans can be certified as an Iowa targeted small business, which carries state and…
Gate: Service connection, not a percentage, for targeted small business status
Iowa Regents Tuition Waiver for a 100 Percent Disabled Veteran
New in 2026: the University of Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa must waive all tuition and mandatory fees for a veteran with a permanent 100 percent service-connected rating.
Gate: A permanent 100 percent service-connected rating, certified by VA
Iowa Resident Tuition for Veterans, Service Members and Their Families
Iowa classifies a qualified veteran, a service member stationed in the state or at the Rock Island arsenal, and their spouses and dependent children as residents for…
Iowa Veterans Cemetery
Burial at the state cemetery near Van Meter is free for an honorably separated veteran and $300 for a spouse or eligible dependent child.
Iowa Veterans Day Time Off From Work
An Iowa employer must give a veteran employee time off on November 11 if the employee would otherwise have to work.
Iowa Veterans Home
Nursing and domiciliary care in Marshalltown for honorably discharged veterans, their spouses, surviving spouses and gold star parents.
Gate: A service-connected condition drawing the enhanced federal per diem means no charge at all
Iowa Veterans Preference in Public Employment
Chapter 35C is an entitlement to the job over other applicants of no greater qualifications, not a points bonus.
Iowa Veterans Trust Fund
A lottery-funded state trust that pays for fifteen named things, from dental and vision care to vehicle repair, emergency housing and a one-time homelessness prevention payment…
Iowa War Orphans Educational Assistance and the Branstad-Reynolds Scholarship
Two tiers in one statute, split by September 11, 2001. A child of a service member who died before that date gets $600 a year and $3,000 for life.
Who Counts as a Veteran in Iowa
Iowa writes at least a dozen different definitions of veteran and they do not agree on service, discharge, residency or disability.
Gate: A nought percent rating is enough for some Iowa benefits
79 federal benefits apply here as well and are left off this page; the place page lists them.