Assistance program
Veteran Readiness and Employment
$9.9 Billion committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Veterans Benefits Administration, Veterans Affairs, Department of
- Assistance
- Direct Payments With Unrestricted Use
- CFDA number
- 64.116
- What it does
- To provide all services and assistance necessary to enable Veterans with service-connected disabilities and service members hospitalized or receiving outpatient medical care services or treatment for a service- connected disability pending discharge to get and keep a suitable job. When employment is not reasonably feasible, the program can provide the needed services and assistance to help the individual achieve maximum independence in daily living.
- Who benefits
- Veterans of World War II and later service with a service-connected disability or disabilities rated at least 20 percent compensable and certain service-disabled Service members pending discharge or release from service if VA determines the Service members will likely receive at least a 20 percent rating and they need vocational rehabilitation because of an employment handicap. Veterans with compensable ratings of 10 percent may also be entitled if they are found to have a serious employment handicap.
- Who applies
- Veterans of World War II and later service with a service-connected disability or disabilities rated at least 20 percent compensable and certain service-disabled servicepersons pending discharge or release from service if VA determines the servicepersons will likely receive at least a 20 percent rating and they need vocational rehabilitation because of an employment handicap. Veterans with a 10 percent service-connected disability may be eligible if they first applied for vocational rehabilitation prior to November 1, 1990, and they have an employment handicap. In addition, veterans with compensable ratings of 10 percent may also be eligible if they are found to have a serious employment handicap.
- Authorized by
- Veterans' Rehabilitation and Education Amendments of 1980
- Program site
- https://www.benefits.va.gov/vocrehab/index.asp ↗
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Recipients
This program's money is paid out as non-itemized direct payments — USAspending records it under a single aggregate, so individual recipients aren't listed. The dollars and agencies above are complete; the recipient roster isn't part of the public record for programs like this.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments