VetTOC · Veteran benefits reference
VetTOC has not written a veterans service office for this place yet.
Find a VA-accredited representative: www.va.gov/get-help-from-accredited-representative/find-rep
Kentucky's Department of Specialty Courts runs a Veterans Treatment Court in Christian County, at the Christian County Justice Center, 100 Justice Way, Hopkinsville, one of its…
www.kycourts.gov/Court-Programs/Specialty-Courts/Pages/Veterans-Treatment-Court.aspx
Every Kentucky county clerk must record a resident's DD-214 or other discharge papers free; the recorded papers are not public records (only the index of names is), copies go…
An $80,000 lump sum from the state general fund when a Guard or Reserve member dies in the line of duty, split into an immediate payment and a trust when children are under 18.
A resident veteran rated 50% or more buys a $12.68 license bundling hunting, fishing, all deer permits, both turkey permits, waterfowl, and trout.
Gate: Service-connected rating of 50% or more
fw.ky.gov/Licenses/Pages/Resident-Senior-and-Disabled-Licenses.aspx
Free at 100% service-connected or with a VA vehicle grant. $23 initial and renewal between 50% and 99%, falling to $17 on January 1, 2027.
Gate: Service-connected rating of 50% or more for the reduced-fee plate; 100% makes the plate free
A Gold Star mother, father, or spouse receives up to two plates free of charge, which most summaries of this benefit omit entirely.
A local board of education shall award a diploma to a veteran who left high school to serve in WWII, Korea, or Vietnam.
State grants for immediate needs and rent or utility assistance for veterans who are homeless or at imminent risk, with no rating requirement.
Kentucky has no veteran-specific property tax exemption. A totally disabled veteran claims the same $49,100 homestead exemption as a 65-year-old, and the only veteran-specific…
Gate: Total service-connected disability; Unemployability is not settled here
A 2026 law added PTSD to Kentucky's hyperbaric oxygen therapy statute. It creates a right of access, not a right to payment - the provider may charge the veteran the full cost.
An active Kentucky National Guard member gets resident tuition by statute.
All active duty pay is exempt, including drill and annual training pay for Guard and Reserve members, and a servicemember with no other income need not file a Kentucky return at…
A state medal for a servicemember killed in action on or after January 1, 1991, reaching members of any state's Guard or Reserve who named Kentucky as home of record.
Up to $31,110 of retired pay is excluded, and service before January 1, 1998 can push the exempt share higher through Schedule P.
$23 to start and $11 a year after, the cheapest renewal of any Kentucky military plate. A surviving spouse may keep a Purple Heart or POW plate and renew it indefinitely.
Kentucky gives veterans a guaranteed interview rather than points.
A resident former POW camps free in any Kentucky state park or campground, with no annual limit, no peak-period restriction, and no rating requirement.
Three free overnight stays a year at any Kentucky state park for a resident veteran rated 100% permanent and total, covering only the veteran, bookable only by phone and no more…
Gate: Total service-connected disability; Permanent and total, not merely 100%
Five state cemeteries, free to the veteran, with a $500 spousal fee payable only at death.
Five state-run skilled nursing homes for Kentucky veterans. At a 70% rating or higher the VA per diem covers the whole cost and the veteran pays nothing out of pocket.
Gate: 70% or higher means no out-of-pocket cost
A child whose own disability is a direct result of the parent's service gets a tuition waiver with no age limit at all, and the veteran parent needs no disability rating.
Two statutes, not one. The general deceased-veteran waiver runs 45 months and stops at 26 for a child; the killed-in-service waiver under KRS 164.505 carries neither limit.
Tuition waived at Kentucky public institutions for the spouse at any age and children under 26 of a veteran rated 100% service-connected, with no wartime service needed.
Gate: Veteran rated 100% service-connected, wartime service not required; Unemployability is not settled here
An honorably discharged veteran can have a veteran designation added to a Kentucky license or ID card, which is proof of service for discounts without carrying a DD-214.
A grant fund for organizations, not a source of aid to individual veterans. Funded mainly by the $5 earmark in veteran license plate fees, part of which was redirected in 2026.
KRS 40.650 authorizes $10,000 loans to veterans for a home, business, education, medical or funeral costs, or debt consolidation.
79 federal benefits apply here as well and are left off this page; the place page lists them.