The Best 50% Disabled Veteran Benefits

Calling all veterans with 50% VA disability or higher! 

Are you 100% certain you’re taking advantage of all the best 50% disabled veteran benefits? If that question makes you second-guess yourself, check out this list.  

Below you’ll find some great 50% disabled veteran benefits you have access to. A few you may already know about, but some you may not. 

What Does 50% VA disability get you? Check out our list of the BEST 50% Disabled Veteran Benefits below!

Five of the Best 50% Disabled Veteran Benefits

1. State Property Tax Exemptions
2. Tax-Free Monthly Compensation
3. Free Healthcare
4. Free Medication
5. Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay (CRDP)

#1: State Property Tax Exemption

First on our list of the best 50% disabled veteran benefits is property tax exemption. 

Many states offer a partial property tax exemption if you have a 50% VA disability or higher. 

In some states, all you need is a 10% rating to cash in on a property tax exemption! Check the list below to see if your 50% rating can get you a tax break in your state:

1. Alaska: According to the Alaska State VA office, if you’re over the age of 65 and have a 50% VA disability rating or higher, you’re exempt from “the first $150,000 of assessed valuation” on your property.
2. Florida: If you’re rated at 10% or higher, you can get a $5,000 reduction on the valuation of your house for property tax purposes.
3. Illinois: In Illinois, you can get a $5,000 reduction on the assessed value of your property if you have a rating between 50%-70%.
4. Indiana: If you served in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, or the Gulf War, received an honorable discharge, and have a disability rating of at least 10% you could qualify for a property tax exemption of $24,960.
5. Kansas: According to the Kansas Department of Revenue, if you have a 50% VA disability rating or higher, you or your surviving spouse may apply for up to a $700 property tax refund.
6. Massachusetts: With a 10% rating or higher, you could get a $400 break on your property taxes.
7. North Dakota: If you live in North Dakota and have a 50% rating, you could be eligible for a $4,050 property tax reduction.
8. Oregon: The state of Oregon offers a property tax break between $24,793 and $29,753 if you have a 40% rating or higher.
9. Texas: If you have a VA rating of 50% or 60%, you may be eligible for a $10,000 reduction in your property tax.
10. Utah: The state of Utah offers a reduction in property taxes based on your disability rating. They calculate your reduction by multiplying your disability rating by $283,964. For example, 50% x $283,964 = $141,982. This amount is then subtracted from the taxable value of your property.
11. Vermont: if you have a 50% VA disability rating or higher you may be eligible for a $10,000 property tax exemption.

#2: Tax-Free Monthly Compensation

One of the most significant 50% VA disability benefits is monthly compensation. 

As of 2024, the base pay for a 50% VA rating is north of $1,075. That’s a lot of green added to your bottom line! 

From there, your monthly compensation can increase based on if you’re married and how many dependents you have. Check out the entire 2024 pay chart here.

Special Monthly Compensation

If you’re already rated at 50%, you’ve probably received compensation for some time now. But, did you know you might be eligible for more per month through Special Monthly Compensation (SMC)? 

SMC is a program implemented by the VA to help veterans with special disabilities rated anywhere from 0% to 100%. Here are a few examples of what could qualify you for SMC: 

• Loss of a hand or foot
• Immobility of a joint
• Paralysis
• Loss of sight of an eye
• Deafness in both ears
• Loss of a percentage of tissue from a single breast, or both breasts, from mastectomy or radiation treatment

There are too many disabilities that can qualify you for SMC to get into—in this post. 

But we wrote a great post called VA Special Monthly Compensation (SMC) Pay Rates that goes into detail.

#3: Free Healthcare

Third on our list of the best 50% disabled veteran benefits is free healthcare. 

Once you hit 50%, just about everything is covered under your VA health care plan. As long as the care you receive is to treat your service-connected disability, the VA will cover it. 

The VA may also cover other services not related to your service-connected disability such as readjustment counseling, mental health services, and services related to Military Sexual Trauma (MST). 

Additionally, with a 50% VA rating or higher, you won’t pay a copay for these services. 

#4: Free Medication

Next on our list of the best 50% disabled veteran benefits is free medication. 

When the VA decides you’re eligible for VA healthcare, they put you in a group to determine what type of services you’re eligible for, how quickly you’ll get those services, and how much your copays are. These are called priority groups. 

The best group to be in is priority group 1. Group 1 takes precedence over the other priority groups which means you’ll get the care you need the fastest and at the lowest cost.

Enrollment in priority group 1 also means medication to treat your service-connected disability is free! No copay is required. 

The only medication copay you’re responsible for is for prescriptions to treat a non service-connected disability, or over-the-counter medication.

#5 Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay (CRDP)

Last but not least on our list of the best 50% disabled veteran benefits is CRDP. 

Through this program, you could receive some or all of both your DoD retirement pay and VA compensation. 

This is normally prohibited under the “dual compensation” rule, also known as the VA offset. Because of this rule, your retirement pay is usually reduced by the amount of your VA compensation. 

For instance, if you’re eligible to receive $1,100 a month in retirement pay and $1,000 a month in VA compensation, you’ll only receive $100 in retirement pay, making your total monthly compensation $1,100. 

If you choose, you can reduce your VA compensation by the amount of your retirement pay, but most veterans do the opposite because of the tax benefits.

Are You Eligible for CRDP?

If you’re eligible for CRDP, you don’t have to apply for it! It will begin automatically. To qualify, you must:

1. Be a regular retiree, a reserve retiree with 20 years of qualifying service, retired under the Temporary Early Retirement Act, or a disability retiree 
2. Have a 50% VA disability rating or higher

CRDP Back Pay

In some cases, you could get CRDP back pay from both the DoD and the VA!

When you become eligible for CRDP, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) will audit your account to determine if you’re due back pay. 

If during their audit, DFAS determines you’re also due back pay from the VA, they’ll forward the audit information to the VA. 

Back pay for CRDP can go back as far as January 1, 2004. 

15 More Great 50% Disabled Veteran Benefits

• #1: Veterans Benefits Banking Program (VBBP)
• #2: Travel allowance for scheduled appointments at a VA medical facility or VA-authorized healthcare facility
• #3: Waiver of VA funding fee for home loan
• #4: Vocational Rehabilitation & Employment
• #5: Additional compensation for eligible dependents
• #6: VA TDIU or “Total Disability Individual Unemployability” Benefits
• #7: Dependents Educational Assistance
• #8: Up to $5,000 Per Year Folds of Honor Educational Scholarships for Eligible Dependents of Disabled Veterans
• #9: Special restorative training
• #10: CHAMPVA Medical Insurance (if unemployable disability condition is permanent)
• #11: Dental care (if unemployable)
• #12: Burial and plot allowance
• #13: Use of commissaries, exchanges, and morale, welfare, and recreation (MWR) retail facilities
• #14: 10-point Veteran preference in federal hiring
• #15: Direct hire authority

Tips to Increase Your VA Rating

• Tip #1: Use MyHealtheVet to Get Your Current Disability Symptoms Documented in VA Medical Records
• Tip #2: Go for High-Value VA Disability Claims (e.g., Mental Health, Lifestyle Impact Claim, Migraines, Sleep Apnea)
• Tip #3: Have a Private Provider Complete DBQs for Conditions Already Service Connected
• Tip #4: File for Secondary Service Connection with Medical Nexus Letters
• Tip #5: Write a crafted personal statement (Please note we no longer recommend a buddy letter)
• Tip #6: Prepare to Nail and Win Your Compensation and Pension (C&P) Exam
• Tip #7: Go for Total Disability Individual Unemployability (TDIU) with 50 VA disability

Secondary Service Connections

What if you’re stuck at a 40% VA disability rating? How do you get your hands on these 50% disabled veteran benefits? 

Well, one strategy is to increase your VA rating by pursuing claims for your secondary conditions.

Secondary conditions are injuries or illnesses that develop because of your primary condition. Sometimes, your service-connected disability produces fall out in a different part of your body. 

For instance, your service-connected depression may cause migraines. Even though your service may not be directly responsible for your migraines, the VA considers them service-connected in a roundabout way. Their thinking is that you likely would not have migraines if it were not for your service-connected depression.

The VA rates secondary conditions in the same way they rate primary conditions. The same rating schedule applies. The rating you receive is incorporated into your overall rating–known as your combined rating.

Pro Tip: Nearly all secondary service connections will need a Nexus Letter.

List of VA Disability Benefits for Veterans

• 60% VA Disability Benefits: >> 60% VA Disability Benefits Explained <<
• 70% VA Disability Benefits: >> Top VA Benefits for Veterans with 70% VA Disability <<
• 80% VA Disability Benefits: >> Top 20 VA Benefits for Veterans with 80% VA Disability <<
• 90% VA Disability Benefits: >> 90% VA Disability Benefits Revealed and Explained <<
• 100% VA Disability Benefits: >> 35 BEST Benefits for 100% VA Disability <<

Wrapping up

In our experience at VA Claims Insider, many disabled veterans with 50 VA disability are stuck, frustrated, and underrated, meaning they do NOT currently have the VA disability compensation benefits they deserve by law.

This means you could be missing out on thousands of dollars of VA disability benefits for you, your spouse, and your dependents.

The good news is you can potentially increase your VA rating from 50% to 90% or 50% to 100% in less time with the VA Claims Insider Elite premier education-based membership program.

We want to make sure you’re taking advantage of all of the 50 percent disabled veteran benefits available. And if you don’t have a 50% VA disability rating quite yet, we’ve got your six!

Reach out and schedule a Free VA Claims Insider Discovery Call today. 

This is a free, no-obligation call with a VA claims expert who can strategize how to boost your rating! 

We also have tons of free resources for you to take advantage of. Check out our blog and YouTube channel for all things VA disability.

Clay Huston

Clay Huston is a former U.S. Army Reserves Blackhawk Pilot and officer. Clay enlisted in the Army in 2013 and was commissioned as a 2LT in 2017 after earning a business degree from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana.

Since separating from the military, Clay has pursued a career as a writer. He also runs the nonprofit notfatherless.org, which fundraises for Children’s Homes in Mexico.