NJ Among Worst States For Retired Military Veterans: Study

How does New Jersey treat its retired military veterans? Not so well, according to a recent study from financial provider WalletHub.

“To help ease the burden of retirement planning for our former military personnel, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 20 key metrics — ranging from job opportunities for veterans to number of VA health facilities per number of veterans — that collectively speak to the economic environment, health care services and overall quality of life in each area,” the company stated.

Overall, New Jersey ranked dead last in the study… only Rhode Island rated worse.

According to the study, Alaska rated as the best state for military retirees.

See the study’s full methodology and state-by-state ranking list here.

According to WalletHub, New Jersey ranked near last in several key categories:

·         49th – Number of Veterans per Capita

·         33rd – Number of VA Health Facilities per Number of Veterans

·         39th – Veteran Job Opportunities

·         47th – Housing Affordability

·         50th – Percentage of Veteran-Owned Businesses

·         43rd – Cost-of-Living Index

·         42nd – WalletHub “Tax Rates” Ranking

·         46th – “Recommendability” of Veteran Hospitals

“Retirement is typically viewed as the end of the line — a time for rest, relaxation and the pursuit of interests long ago put on the back burner,” wrote the study’s author, John Kiernan.

“But the narrative is far different for many military retirees,” he continued. “For starters, the average officer is only 47 years old — 43 for nondisability enlisted personnel — upon retirement from service. All military retirees deal with the trials of reassimilation to civilian life, which have proven especially difficult for some veterans in the wake of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many of those who reenter the job market face tough challenges during the transition, and rising numbers of young vets have encountered hardship and homelessness.”

“As such, military retirement can be a far more complicated issue than one might initially assume, given the extent to which state tax policies differ when it comes to military benefits, the relative friendliness of different job markets to veterans and a variety of other important socioeconomic factors,” Kiernan concluded.

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File photo: U.S. Department of Defense