The Florida Veteran Benefits Handbook

Florida gives a service-connected veteran more than almost any state, and administers every piece of it at a different counter, on a different form, with a different deadline. A 100% permanent-and-total rating wipes out the property tax on your home. Below that sit a free DV plate, free hunting and fishing licenses at 50%, a free lifetime state parks pass at any rating, tuition at resident rates, preference in every public hiring decision, a state scholarship for your children and spouse, and fee waivers nobody mentions at the counter that collects the fee.

This book is the procedure: for every benefit, the statute that creates it, the document that proves it, the office that takes the form, and the date. Cited by section so you can check it. Nothing to buy after it.

Inside:

• The homestead exemption at 100% P&T, and the $5,000, combat-related, and survivor provisions beneath it. March 1.
• The DV plate and the five-year residency test that catches newer Floridians, and the one form at the clerk's counter that gets around it.
• What the plate does and doesn't do: free metered and airport parking, no accessible space, no toll exemption.
• The first month after a move, when four of Florida's clocks start.
• Your out-of-state license honored, the veterans' teaching certificate, the CDL waiver, and the windows that close on each.
• The Hometown Heroes loan (a veteran needn't be a first-time buyer, but must work full time in Florida), the veterans treatment courts, and the free statewide legal helpline.
• VA health care where you live: Florida's VA medical centers and clinics, what each rating opens (copays, travel pay, dental), community and urgent care, and CHAMPVA for a P&T veteran's family.
• Wills, powers of attorney, and the homestead's estate rules, and what a surviving spouse files and by when: DIC, accrued benefits, burial, the six-month homestead election.
• Storms: medications and the VA's disaster pharmacy, the special needs registry, FEMA and SBA help, and keeping the exemption on a damaged house.
• Florida by region: the VA hospitals, Vet Centers, cemeteries, state homes, bases, and county offices in each of six regions.
• A chapter for the reader still in the Guard or on active duty: tuition, job protection, the license that doesn't expire.
• Three veterans, at 30%, 100%, and 100% P&T, walked through every counter with the numbers.
• The one-week route through the three county offices with one folder, and every deadline in one table.
• Florida's military bases open to service-connected veterans: the Keys (Sigsbee, Boca Chica, Navy Lodge Key West), Patrick and Cape Canaveral, and boat rentals with real prices at eleven marinas.
• Theme parks, cruise lines, travel clubs, and nature tours, sorted by which offers reach a veteran who isn't retired.
• A worksheet pack counselors may copy, and a links page with all 67 counties' offices, kept current as the rules change.