PA Victims Compensation: Eligibility, Coverage, and Appeals

Pennsylvania’s Victims Compensation Assistance Program, known as VCAP, can reimburse crime victims up to $35,000 in out-of-pocket expenses, with counseling, forensic rape exams, and crime-scene cleanup paid above that cap.¹ The program is run by the Office of Victims’ Services within the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. For crimes that happened on or after September 8, 2022, you have five years from the date of the crime to file.²

Who Can File a Claim

Pennsylvania’s Crime Victims Act opens the program to several groups:³

Direct victims who suffered physical or psychological injury from a crime committed or attempted in Pennsylvania.
Intervenors, including law enforcement officers, injured while trying to stop a crime, catch a suspect, or help a victim.
Surviving spouses, parents, children, dependents, stepfamily, and fiancés of homicide victims.
Anyone who paid funeral, burial, or crime-scene cleanup costs, whether or not they were related to the victim.
People eligible for counseling reimbursement, such as minor children who witnessed certain violent crimes against a family member, even if they weren’t physically harmed.

Three conditions apply across the board. You must have reported the crime to police within 72 hours, though a late report may be excused for good cause. You have to cooperate with law enforcement and the prosecution. And you can’t recover if you were involved in illegal activity that contributed to your injury.²

Two smaller rules catch people off guard. If you’re under 60, your loss must be at least $50 to file. And if you’re a direct victim of sexual abuse, you can claim counseling costs without ever filing a police report.²

What VCAP Pays For

Covered expenses include medical bills, counseling, lost earnings, funeral costs, relocation, travel, childcare, stolen cash, and crime-scene cleanup.⁴ On the medical side, VCAP will reimburse insurance co-pays, out-of-network charges, and other out-of-pocket amounts, so having health coverage doesn’t disqualify you.²

VCAP is a payer of last resort. It only covers costs no other source has paid. Health insurance, workers’ compensation, Social Security, and court-ordered restitution from the offender all reduce what VCAP will award. The program fills the gaps those sources leave behind.

How Much You Can Get

The overall cap on a single claim is $35,000. Three categories of benefits sit outside that cap and can be paid on top of it:¹

Counseling, up to $5,000 for adult direct victims and up to $10,000 for minors. Family members and witnesses eligible for counseling have their own sub-limits, generally $2,500, or $5,000 in homicide cases.
Forensic rape exams and medications directly related to the sexual assault, up to $1,000.
Crime-scene cleanup of a private residence or privately owned vehicle, up to $500.

Inside the $35,000 cap, lost earnings have their own ceiling. The weekly payment can’t exceed Pennsylvania’s average weekly wage, and the total lost-earnings award is limited to $15,000. In homicide cases where dependents are claiming loss of support, that limit rises to $20,000.¹

Funeral and burial costs count against the $35,000 cap and can include the service, memorial meal, flowers, and burial clothing. In homicide cases, the victim’s own conduct won’t be used to reduce a funeral claim.²

How to File

Before you start, pull together your police report number, the name of the investigating agency, and records of every crime-related expense you’re claiming. For medical bills, that means itemized statements and insurance explanation-of-benefits forms showing what was and wasn’t covered. For lost wages, have your employer’s contact information and proof of your regular pay.

You can file three ways:

Online, through the Crime Victims App on the Apple Store or Google Play, or directly at dave.pa.gov.
By mail, using the claim form on the PCCD website and sending it to the Office of Victims’ Services in Harrisburg.
By email, using the same downloaded form.²

If you’re working with a victim advocate or a hospital billing office, they can upload documentation to your claim through the DAVE portal without routing every receipt back through you.

Emergency Awards When You Can’t Wait

If a standard claim will take too long, VCAP can issue an emergency award of up to $5,000. It covers verified lost earnings, loss of support, stolen benefit cash, and crime-related bills you’ve already paid. All documentation has to be verified before the money goes out, so submit your paperwork complete the first time.²

What Happens After You File

A claims investigator is assigned to your case and verifies the facts by contacting police, medical providers, and employers. Standard claims generally take several months. Cases with ongoing medical treatment or an active criminal investigation take longer. When a claim is approved, payment usually goes straight to your service providers, or to you as reimbursement for what you’ve already paid. You’ll receive written notice either way.

Appealing a Denial

If your claim is denied or the award is less than you expected, you have 30 days from the date of the determination to request reconsideration in writing. Attach any new information that might change the result. The office will then either revise or reaffirm the decision.⁵

If reconsideration doesn’t go your way, you have another 30 days to request a formal hearing before a hearing examiner, who issues a final decision after reviewing the record. Miss either 30-day deadline and the most recent determination becomes final with no further right to appeal, so mark the date the day a denial letter arrives. A late filing may be excused only if you were incapacitated or can show other good cause.⁵

Taxes and Effect on Other Benefits

Compensation for physical injuries or physical sickness is generally excluded from federal gross income.⁶ Payments tied purely to emotional distress without a physical injury don’t qualify for that exclusion, though amounts covering medical care for emotional distress still can be excluded.

If you receive Supplemental Security Income, a VCAP award won’t count toward your SSI resource limit for nine months after you receive it.⁷ After nine months, any money still in your accounts can push you over the resource threshold, so plan how you’ll spend or set aside those funds before the window closes.

1
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Statutes Title 18 Crimes and Offenses – Section 11.707
2
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Apply for Victims’ Compensation
3
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Crime Victims Act
4
Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. Office of Victims’ Services – Section: Financial Compensation for Victims
5
Pennsylvania Code and Bulletin. Pennsylvania Administrative Code Chapter 411 – Crime Victims Compensation
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 104 – Compensation for Injuries or Sickness
7
Social Security Administration. Understanding Supplemental Security Income SSI Resources