Thousands of Disabled Veterans Denied MTA Reduced Fares

Timothy Pena • October 12, 2024

Veterans Affairs Disabilities Don’t Qualify for MTA and Other NYC Programs for Disabled Veterans

The National Institute of Mental Health defines serious mental illness as “a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder resulting in serious functional impairment, which substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities.” SMI is a term used to describe people with severe and persistent mental health problems that cause difficulties with personal and social functioning. Schizophrenia is one SMI that has been linked to neurocognitive deficits.


PTSD can cause cognitive impairment, especially in veterans, and the severity of PTSD is linked to the severity of cognitive impairment. PTSD can impact cognitive processes like attention, memory, planning, and problem solving. There is also concern that PTSD can increase the risk of dementia and mild cognitive impairment. 

According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2022), there are about 39,000 disabled veterans in New York City. For those veterans who have disability awarded by Veterans Affairs with compensation less than $943/mo., Social Security Insurance (SSI) is available to make up the difference. For example, a veteran receiving a 10% disability rating ($171/mo.) would receive an additional $772/mo. from Social Security.


For veterans with service-connected disability and monthly compensation of more than $943/mo., SSI is not available, and neither are reduced fares. MTA’s policy provides reduced fares for Severe Mental Illness as per SSI as a cognitive disability, but not for service-connected veterans diagnosed as SMI because of PTSD. While non-veterans on Social Security are readily approved for every NYC program, veterans with service-connected disabilities are excluded.

According to Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Director of Reduced Fare:

“Since you are not receiving SSI benefits due to a mental illness, you do not meet the eligibility criteria for serious mental illness as defined in our guidelines. As per the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Reduced-Fare Program guidelines, it states that you must “receive Supplement Security Income benefits from the United States Social Security Administration due to a mental illness.”                                                                                                                                                                      Daniel Griffith

                                                                                                                                                                                               Director, Reduced Fare

For veterans shoved into violent and drug-infested NYC Dept. of Homeless Shelters under the Adams Administration, this is not surprising. Although veterans in the VA Grant and Per Diem (GPD) Transitional Program are supposed to be provided transportation to/from VA medical and mental health appointments, NYC DHS shelter staff repeatedly deny access to transportation services for veterans that receive more than $100/mo.


The lack of transportation options from MTA and DHS severely limit access to medical and mental health resources critical to veterans suffering from service-connected disabilities and disorders and only making their conditions worse.
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