Did You Know?
VA lists the automobile allowance at up to $27,074.99, effective October 1, 2025 — and a second allowance may be possible if you bought the vehicle 30 or more years ago.
This benefit has two halves that often get confused: money toward a vehicle, and money to adapt one. The qualifying conditions overlap but aren't identical, and one condition qualifies you only for the equipment side.
Qualifying Conditions
VA lists a service-connected disability that includes at least one of:
- Loss, or permanent loss of use, of one or both feet
- Loss, or permanent loss of use, of one or both hands
- Permanent decreased vision in both eyes — 20/200 or less in your better eye
- Severe burn injury
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
- Ankylosis in one or both knees or hips — this one qualifies you for an adaptive-equipment grant only
"Loss of use" is not the same as loss
Permanent loss of use is its own category. A limb you still have but can't functionally use may fall inside these criteria — veterans read the word "loss" and stop reading, which is how this benefit gets skipped.
A Second Allowance Is Possible
VA describes circumstances for a second automobile allowance — including having purchased the vehicle 30 or more years ago, or a natural disaster having destroyed a previously purchased vehicle.
If you received this decades ago and have assumed ever since that it was finished, that assumption is worth re-checking.
The Two Forms
- VA Form 21-4502 — Application for Automobile or Other Conveyance and Adaptive Equipment
- VA Form 10-1394 — Application for Adaptive Equipment, Motor Vehicle
Which one you need depends on whether you're seeking the vehicle allowance, the equipment, or both. A VSO can sort that out with you in a single conversation.
Before You Apply
- Check your rating decision for the specific language about loss or loss of use — that wording is what VA works from.
- Note whether ankylosis in a knee or hip applies, since that route leads to adaptive equipment rather than the vehicle allowance.
- Confirm the current allowance figure before budgeting; the rate carries an effective date and changes.
- If you received an allowance long ago, ask whether a second one applies to you now.