SECTION 6B. Annuities for blind, paraplegic or disabled veterans

In addition to any other aid to which a veteran is entitled, a veteran who, according to the records of the Veterans' Administration of the United States government, has suffered permanent impairment of vision of both eyes of the following status: central visual acuity of 5/200 or less in the better eye, with corrective glasses, or central visual acuity of more than 5/200 if there is a field defect in which the peripheral field has contracted to such an extent that the widest diameter of visual field subtends an angular distance no greater than twenty degrees in the better eye, a veteran who is suffering from paraplegia and has permanent paralysis of both legs and lower parts of the body, resulting from traumatic injury to the spinal cord or brain, sustained through enemy action, or accident while in such military or naval service, and a veteran who has permanent paralysis of both legs and lower parts of the body, resulting from malaria, anemia, other forms of disease, tumors or poisoning which may produce signs and symptoms similar to those resulting from traumatic paraplegia and certified by said Veterans' Administration to be service-connected shall be paid so long as such blindness or permanent paralysis exists, the sum of $2,000 annually in two equal payments on August 1 and February 1. Such payments shall be due and payable from the date of his application. This section shall not include paraplegia resulting from locomotor ataxia and other forms of syphilis of the central nervous system, or chronic alcoholism.

A veteran who has lost both legs or is otherwise determined to be 100 per cent disabled by the Veterans Administration as a result of enemy action or an accident certified by said Veterans' Administration to be service connected shall be paid the sum of $2,000 annually in two equal payments on August 1 and February 1. Such payments shall be due and payable from the date of his application.

The parents and surviving spouse, provided that surviving spouse does not remarry, of a deceased member of the armed forces of the United States, whose death occurred as a result of injury sustained or disease contracted during active service in time of war or insurrection or combat, shall be paid the sum of $2,000 annually in two equal payments on August 1 and February 1. Such payments shall be due and payable from the date of the parents' and surviving spouse's application; provided, however, that the first payment shall be retroactive to the applicant's initial date of eligibility if the deceased member or the parent or spouse making application was a resident of the commonwealth at the time of death and the parent or spouse making application is a resident of the commonwealth at the time of application. For the purposes of calculating any retroactive payment of benefits under this section, the initial date of eligibility shall be the later of: (i) the date of death of the member of the armed forces of the United States; or (ii) July 1, 1998, in the case of parents and November 11, 2005, in the case of a spouse.

Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, an annuity payment made to a recipient pursuant to this section shall not constitute income in an application or formula utilized by the commonwealth or a political subdivision to determine eligibility for a program or service funded or provided by the commonwealth. Notwithstanding the forgoing, such an annuity payment may constitute income if not doing so would, under federal law, prohibit eligibility or otherwise negatively impact the recipient's benefits under the program or service; provided, however, that the commonwealth or a political subdivision thereof shall seek a waiver from any federal law with such an eligibility requirement.