State veteran benefits · MA
Massachusetts Veteran Benefits
Massachusetts pays veterans rated 100 percent disabled a $2,500 annual annuity, raised from $2,000 by the 2024 HERO Act, on top of its property tax and pension exemptions.
By Mario Bailey, U.S. Air Force veteran · current Air National Guard member. Data updated 2026-07-10.
What Massachusetts adds, benefit by benefit
Your federal VA benefits travel with you to any state. Everything below is the second stack: what Massachusetts itself offers, each item checked against the state's own official source on the date shown.
Property tax relief through the Clause 22 exemptions
Veterans with a service-connected rating of 10 percent or more can get a $400 exemption (Clause 22), veterans rated 100 percent and unable to work get $1,000 (Clause 22E), and paraplegic veterans or those with 100 percent service-connected blindness get a full exemption (Clause 22F). If you qualify for more than one clause, you receive the one worth the most.
The 2024 HERO Act added two local options: Clause 22I lets a city or town index exemption amounts to inflation, and Clause 22J lets it double them, turning the Clause 22E amount from $1,000 into $2,000. Both apply only where the municipality votes to adopt them, so identical ratings can produce different relief in different towns. Apply through your local assessors.
SOURCE: Massachusetts Division of Local Services · retrieved 2026-07-10
Military retirement pay is exempt from Massachusetts income tax
Income from U.S. military pensions, covering the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, Coast Guard, and the commissioned corps of USPHS and NOAA, is excluded from Massachusetts gross income. VA disability compensation is never taxed, by Massachusetts or by the federal government.
SOURCE: Massachusetts Department of Revenue · retrieved 2026-07-10
Categorical Tuition Waiver at public colleges and universities
Massachusetts resident veterans who are not in default on federal student loans are eligible, on a space-available basis, for a full or partial waiver of tuition in state-supported undergraduate degree and certificate programs at any Massachusetts public college, community college, or university campus.
Massachusetts National Guard members get a stronger version: a 100 percent waiver of both tuition and fees at state institutions, available until they reach 130 semester hours.
SOURCE: Massachusetts Department of Higher Education · retrieved 2026-07-10
Absolute veterans preference in civil service hiring
Massachusetts civil service uses absolute preference: a veteran who passes an open competitive exam is placed above non-veterans on the eligible list, and veterans go to the top of labor service lists for state agencies and the City of Boston. Disabled veterans with a service-connected rating of 10 percent or more from wartime service rank above other veterans, with VA documentation.
SOURCE: Massachusetts Civil Service · retrieved 2026-07-10
State veterans homes in Chelsea and Holyoke
Massachusetts runs two long-term care homes for veterans, the former Soldiers' Homes. The Veterans Home at Chelsea moved residents into a new 154-bed long-term care building with all private rooms in 2023-2024. Holyoke is being rebuilt in a $482 million project: the new 234-bed home with a memory care unit and a 40-person adult day health program expects its first residents in late 2026.
SOURCE: Massachusetts Veterans Homes · retrieved 2026-07-10
State veterans cemeteries at Agawam and Winchendon
Massachusetts operates two veterans memorial cemeteries, in Agawam and Winchendon. Interment is at no cost for eligible veterans, and fees for spouses and eligible dependents are capped at $300. Eligibility covers those discharged under honorable conditions, 20-year National Guard or Reserve retirees with retirement pay, and members who die on active duty.
SOURCE: Massachusetts Executive Office of Veterans Services · retrieved 2026-07-10
The $2,500 annual Veteran Annuity
Massachusetts pays a $2,500 annuity each year to veterans with a VA service-connected rating of 100 percent who live in the state and were discharged under conditions that are not dishonorable, and to Gold Star parents and unmarried Gold Star spouses. The HERO Act raised it from $2,000, the first increase in 17 years; since August 2025 it arrives as a single annual payment.
SOURCE: Massachusetts Executive Office of Veterans Services · retrieved 2026-07-10
Chapter 115 financial assistance, the state safety net
Under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 115, the state pays means-tested financial and medical assistance to veterans and their dependents for food, shelter, clothing, fuel, and medical care, with the amount set by a formula based on income and dependents. Applications run through the Veterans Service Officer assigned to every city and town in the state.
Chapter 115 now also covers outpatient behavioral health, including psychiatric care, substance use treatment, and prescriptions, though not inpatient hospital stays. A cost-of-living increase in federal or state benefits that pushes a veteran over the income threshold does not cut off benefits for that year.
SOURCE: Massachusetts Executive Office of Veterans Services · retrieved 2026-07-10
Massachusetts is the rare state that mails checks. Most state veteran benefits are discounts you have to go claim; here, a 100 percent rated veteran gets an actual $2,500 payment every August, and Chapter 115 pays monthly cash toward rent, food, and medical costs when income drops. Both run through something no other state requires: a paid Veterans Service Officer in every single city and town. In most states, the gap between benefits on paper and benefits collected is a research problem. In Massachusetts it is one phone call to town hall.
Be honest about the property tax side, though. Unless you are paraplegic or blind from service, the Clause 22 exemptions shave hundreds, not thousands, off a bill, and the HERO Act upgrades only exist where a town meeting or city council has voted them in. Two 100 percent P&T homeowners in neighboring towns can see different relief for identical ratings, so ask your assessor which clauses your municipality has adopted before you build a number into your budget.
The strongest combined position belongs to a 100 percent P&T veteran who retired from the military and owns a home: the annuity, the Clause 22E exemption, a state-tax-free military pension, and VA compensation that is never taxed anywhere stack into real money. If you are unsure how the disability side works at tax time, the short answer is in our guide to whether VA disability is taxable, and your monthly rate is on the current VA disability pay tables.
For students, the categorical tuition waiver matters most after Post-9/11 GI Bill entitlement runs out, since Chapter 33 already covers tuition while it lasts; see how state programs stack with the GI Bill. The thing veterans most commonly skip is Chapter 115. The words “means-tested” make people assume it is welfare for someone else, but it exists precisely for the gap years, a layoff, a divorce, the months waiting on a VA claim decision, and it covers dependents and surviving spouses too. The VSO who files it for you also handles the burial benefits conversation nobody wants to have early, and in Massachusetts having that person under a legal duty to help is the quiet benefit that makes all the others collectable.
Where to apply
State benefits are administered by the state, not by VA, so the applications above run through Massachusetts Executive Office of Veterans Services or the specific agency named in each source link. A free VA-accredited representative or VSO in Massachusetts will know both stacks, the federal claim and the state paperwork, and charges nothing to help with either.