State veteran benefits · DE
Delaware Veteran Benefits
Delaware credits back 100 percent of the school district property tax on the primary residence of a veteran rated permanently and totally disabled who has held Delaware domicile for three years.
By Mario Bailey, U.S. Air Force veteran · current Air National Guard member. Data updated 2026-07-10.
What Delaware adds, benefit by benefit
Your federal VA benefits travel with you to any state. Everything below is the second stack: what Delaware itself offers, each item checked against the state's own official source on the date shown.
Property tax relief
The Disabled Veterans School Tax Credit erases 100 percent of the non-vocational school district property tax on a primary residence for veterans receiving 100 percent disability compensation for a service-connected permanent and total disability, including through individual unemployability. School tax is typically the largest slice of a Delaware property bill, but county and municipal portions still apply.
Applicants need legal domicile in Delaware for the three years before applying, applications are due April 30 through the county, and once granted the credit renews without reapplication. It cannot be combined with the Senior School Property Tax Credit.
SOURCE: Delaware Department of Finance · retrieved 2026-07-10
State income tax
Delaware taxes income but excludes up to $12,500 of military pension income for retirees under 60, a carve-out created in 2022; other under-60 pensioners get only $2,000. At 60 and older, the general exclusion covers up to $12,500 of pension and eligible retirement income for everyone.
Legislation passed by the General Assembly on July 1, 2026 would phase the military pension exemption up to $25,000 by tax year 2029 regardless of age; it awaits the governor's signature, so the $12,500 figure governs today. VA disability compensation is excluded from federal income and Delaware never taxes it.
SOURCE: Delaware General Assembly · retrieved 2026-07-10
Education benefits for children of deceased or missing service members
Delaware funds post-secondary education for children of service members who died in service, are prisoners of war, or are declared missing in action. The student must be 16 to 24, a Delaware resident for at least three years, and enrolled in post-secondary study, with the benefit administered through the state's higher education office.
SOURCE: Delaware Office of Veterans Services · retrieved 2026-07-10
State hiring preference
In state merit system hiring, disabled veterans receive 10 preference points and other eligible veterans receive 5 points toward their application scores.
SOURCE: Delaware Office of Veterans Services · retrieved 2026-07-10
Delaware Veterans Home
The Delaware Veterans Home in Milford is a 150-bed long-term care facility providing skilled nursing services plus a special needs unit for residents with dementia, including Alzheimer's disease.
SOURCE: Delaware Office of Veterans Services · retrieved 2026-07-10
No-fee hunting and fishing licenses
Veterans with a service-connected disability rated 60 percent or higher qualify for no-fee Delaware hunting and fishing licenses, a break also extended to active duty members stationed in the state.
SOURCE: Delaware Office of Veterans Services · retrieved 2026-07-10
State veterans cemeteries
The Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery operates two locations, at Bear in New Castle County and at Patriots Way in Millsboro for Sussex County, interring veterans, their spouses, and dependent children, with both casketed and cremated remains accommodated.
SOURCE: Delaware Office of Veterans Services · retrieved 2026-07-10
Paraplegic veterans pension
Delaware pays a state pension of $3,000 per year, in monthly installments, to veterans with service-connected paraplegia and total disability, one of the few standing state cash benefits for catastrophically injured veterans.
SOURCE: Delaware Office of Veterans Services · retrieved 2026-07-10
Delaware’s signature benefit works differently than most states’ and is easy to undersell or oversell. The school tax credit does not touch county or town levies, so a P&T veteran’s bill does not go to zero. But school districts collect the bulk of a Delaware property bill, so wiping that line typically removes well over half the total, and Delaware’s bills were modest to begin with. The real trap is the residency clock: three years of Delaware domicile before you apply. A 100 percent veteran who retires here from Maryland pays full freight for three years, so factor the wait into any relocation math, and calendar April 30, because a missed deadline costs a full year.
The pension picture is mid-tier and moving. Today a 55-year-old retiree shields $12,500 of retired pay, roughly the first half of a typical E-7 pension, while everything above it is taxed. The legislature has now passed a phase-up to $25,000 by 2029; until it is signed and effective, plan on current law. VA compensation, as always, never appears on any return, state or federal, which is VA disability taxable walks through, and the rating behind your check is priced in the VA disability pay tables.
Delaware’s small size shapes who wins. There is one state home, in Milford, but nowhere in the state is far from it, and its 150 beds include a dedicated dementia unit. Two state cemeteries bracket the state north and south; the federal benefits they build on are covered in veteran burial and memorial benefits. The education benefit is a survivors’ program, tightly scoped to children of the dead, captured, and missing, so most Delaware military families should plan schooling around a Chapter 33 transfer instead, per the Post-9/11 GI Bill guide.
Commonly missed: the paraplegic pension. Three thousand dollars a year is not life-changing next to VA special monthly compensation, but it is standing state money that eligible veterans simply never claim because no one tells them it exists. The 10-point and 5-point state hiring preferences are likewise separate from, and stack alongside, the federal system in veterans’ preference for federal jobs.
Where to apply
State benefits are administered by the state, not by VA, so the applications above run through Delaware Office of Veterans Services or the specific agency named in each source link. A free VA-accredited representative or VSO in Delaware will know both stacks, the federal claim and the state paperwork, and charges nothing to help with either.