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VA paid an estimated $1.77 billion in disability compensation to 69,115 veterans in New Jersey in fiscal year 2024, and a new analysis of federal price data by Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick finds those payments buy 8.1% less there than at national average prices, the fourth-biggest shortfall in the country. Bureau of Economic Analysis price levels for 2024, applied to VA’s current rates, show that the $3,938.58 monthly payment for a veteran rated 100% is worth $3,620.02 in New Jersey, $318.56 less than the same check buys at national average prices, and because VA applies the 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment announced on October 14 at the same percentage everywhere, that gap will carry straight into next year’s payments.

Two veterans can hold the same 100% rating and receive the same payment on the same day, yet the one living in New Jersey can buy $912.29 a month less with it than one living in Arkansas, where prices are the lowest in the country, and the gap widens with every step up the rating scale, so the veterans with the highest ratings feel New Jersey’s higher prices the most.

“Cost-of-living adjustments are designed to protect the purchasing power of benefits, but a national percentage cannot account for local prices,” said Bradley Hennings, a former Veterans Law Judge and Partner at CCK Law. “The raise is identical on paper for every veteran with the same rating. What it buys depends on where that veteran lives.”

Housing Costs Are The Thread Running Through The Data

Housing explains most of the difference, with BEA putting New Jersey’s rent price level at 134.3 against a national level of 100, nearly two and a half times the 54.2 recorded in West Virginia, while goods such as food, fuel and clothing sit at 107.1. The higher rates are due from December 1 if Congress approves the adjustment, with the first increased payment scheduled for December 31, and the same national percentage will reach every veteran whatever their rent.

New Jersey’s overall price level barely moved between 2023 and 2024, from 108.9 to 108.8, keeping it among the 10 places where a VA check buys the least, and because VA pays one national rate, that shortfall will carry into every payment made there in 2027.

“This is not a story about which states are better or worse for veterans,” said Hennings. “It is a reminder that the number on the check is only half of the picture. Veterans should also know that a rating decision they disagree with can be challenged, and that has a far bigger effect on monthly income than any single year’s raise.”

ENDS