Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation: Caps, Category Limits, and Exclusions

Texas caps crime victims’ compensation amounts and limits at $50,000 for a standard claim, with up to an additional $75,000 available when a crime causes total and permanent disability. That brings the ceiling to $125,000. Within those totals, individual expense categories carry their own sub-caps, so what you actually receive depends on which bills the crime produced and what other sources have already paid.¹

The Standard Cap and the Catastrophic Injury Add-On

Article 56B.106 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure sets the ceiling. The standard limit is $50,000 across all expense categories for a single crime. That total combines everything paid to the victim and to any claimants filing on the victim’s behalf, so multiple family members filing for the same incident share the same pool.¹

When a crime causes injuries resulting in total and permanent disability, the Attorney General can award up to $75,000 on top of the $50,000. This additional tier is restricted to specific costs tied to long-term disability: lost wages, home or vehicle accessibility modifications, job training, vocational rehabilitation, durable medical equipment, home health care, rehabilitation technology, and long-term medical expenses. Qualifying requires documentation that the disability is both total and permanent, not simply severe or long-lasting.¹

Per-Category Limits Within the Cap

Reaching the $50,000 standard ceiling requires stacking several categories together, because most individual expenses have their own limits. Knowing those sub-caps helps you estimate what a realistic award looks like for your situation.

Medical, Dental, and Mental Health Care

Medical and dental treatment tied directly to the crime is the largest category for most claims. Covered care includes hospital stays, surgeries, prescriptions, physical therapy, and dental reconstruction. Counseling and psychiatric care are covered as well, and family or household members who need mental health treatment because of the crime can receive reimbursement in their own right. Sexual assault victims can receive emergency medical care reimbursement even without reporting the crime to law enforcement.²³

Lost Wages

When injuries keep you from working, the program pays up to $700 per week for crimes occurring after July 14, 2016. That covers wages lost while recovering, attending medical appointments, or taking part in criminal justice proceedings. Claimants such as family members taking bereavement leave after a homicide can also receive lost wage reimbursement under separate provisions.⁴

Funeral and Burial Costs

Funeral and burial expenses are capped at $6,500 for crimes occurring after July 14, 2016. Transportation of the deceased over 50 miles one way does not count against that limit. Travel and lost wages related to attending the funeral are reimbursed under their own separate categories.⁵

Relocation and Housing

Relocation assistance is available for victims of family violence, dating violence, sexual assault in the home, stalking, human trafficking, and attempted murder of a child in the home. For crimes after August 31, 2023, the cap is $5,000 total for relocation deposits, moving costs, and rent combined. For crimes before that date, the older limits apply: up to $2,000 for moving expenses and deposits, plus up to three months of rent capped at $1,800.⁶

Victims of other crimes, along with dependents and household members of any victim, can also qualify for relocation assistance when there is a documented health or safety need. The same $5,000 cap applies.¹

Child and Dependent Care

If the crime created new child or dependent care needs, the program pays up to $300 per week per child or dependent for crimes after July 14, 2016. Coverage runs for up to 52 weeks from enrollment. The care provider must be certified, registered, or licensed, and you need to exhaust other child care assistance programs first.⁷

Travel Expenses

Travel to medical appointments, court proceedings, and funerals is reimbursable when the one-way distance exceeds 20 miles from your home. If the trip exceeds 60 miles one way, lodging and food reimbursement may also be available. Other covered categories include crime scene cleanup, attorney’s fees tied to the CVC application itself, and replacement of clothing or bedding seized as evidence in a sexual assault investigation.²

What the Program Will Not Pay For

Stolen or damaged property is not eligible. If someone breaks into your home and takes your electronics, the program will not reimburse that loss. The one narrow exception is clothing or bedding taken as evidence or made unusable during a sexual assault investigation, where reasonable replacement costs are covered. Pain and suffering, emotional distress as a standalone monetary award, and any expenses already paid by insurance or another source are also excluded.

Why Your Payout Might Be Less Than the Cap

The caps describe what is possible, not what is automatic. Three things regularly bring an actual award below the ceiling.

First, the program is a payer of last resort. Health insurance, Medicaid, auto insurance, and workers’ compensation must pay first on any expense they cover. CVC fills the remaining gap, so a well-insured victim may see a much smaller award than the sub-caps suggest.

Second, the Attorney General can deny or reduce an award for four reasons: you didn’t cooperate with law enforcement’s investigation, your own behavior contributed to the circumstances of the crime, the expenses are already covered by another source, or you were engaged in illegal activity at the time of the crime. The cooperation requirement has built-in protections. Your interactions at the crime scene or hospital cannot be held against you; only a later refusal to cooperate counts. For sexual assault victims, undergoing a forensic medical examination counts as sufficient cooperation.⁸

Third, if you later collect on the same losses through a civil lawsuit, insurance payout, or restitution, Texas law requires you to reimburse the state for what CVC already paid. This is called subrogation. It applies only to economic damages that CVC covered, not to non-economic damages such as pain and suffering, and reasonable attorney’s fees and legal costs are deducted from the repayment calculation. One trap to watch: if a settlement doesn’t specify which portion covers economic versus non-economic damages, CVC will treat the entire amount as economic and subject to repayment, so your attorney should allocate those categories in writing.⁹¹⁰

Are CVC Payments Taxable

No. Payments from the Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation program are not taxable income. The IRS treats state crime victim fund payments as welfare-type benefits, so you don’t report them on your federal return. The only exceptions involve payments obtained fraudulently or received as compensation for services, neither of which applies to a legitimate CVC award.¹¹

1
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 56B.106 – Limits on Compensation
2
Office of the Attorney General of Texas. CVC Covered Costs
3
Office of the Attorney General of Texas. Crime Victims’ Compensation Eligibility: Find Out If You Qualify
4
Office of the Attorney General of Texas. Lost Wages for Claimants
5
Office of the Attorney General. Funeral Cost Reimbursement
6
Office of the Attorney General of Texas. Rent and Relocation Reimbursement
7
Office of the Attorney General of Texas. Child and Dependent Care Compensation
8
Texas.Public.Law. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 56B.107 – Denial or Reduction of Award
9
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 56B.202 – Subrogation
10
Office of the Attorney General of Texas. Subrogation for Attorneys and Legal Professionals
11
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 525 (2025), Taxable and Nontaxable Income