The VA rates every service-connected mental health condition under one regulation, 38 CFR 4.130, and applies a single General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders regardless of the specific diagnosis. That formula assigns a rating of 0, 10, 30, 50, 70, or 100 percent based on how severely symptoms impair your ability to work and maintain relationships. In 2026, a single veteran with no dependents receives $180.42 per month at 10 percent and $3,938.58 per month at 100 percent.1U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Current Veterans Disability Compensation Rates
What Each Rating Level Requires
The percentages describe combinations of symptom severity and functional impairment. The symptoms the regulation lists at each level are examples, not a checklist. The regulation says “due to such symptoms as,” which means the examples illustrate the expected severity but you don’t need to show every one of them. What matters is whether the overall picture of impairment matches the level.2eCFR. 38 CFR 4.130 – Schedule of Ratings, Mental Disorders
0 Percent
A formal diagnosis exists and is service-connected, but symptoms are not severe enough to interfere with work or social functioning and don’t require continuous medication. No monthly compensation, but the rating locks in service connection so a later increase is easier than a new claim.
10 Percent — $180.42 per Month
Symptoms are mild or transient and reduce work performance only during periods of significant stress. Symptoms are generally controlled by medication.
30 Percent — $552.47 per Month
Occasional decreases in work performance and intermittent periods of inability to complete occupational tasks, though the veteran is generally functioning. The regulation describes depressed mood, anxiety, suspiciousness, panic attacks weekly or less often, chronic sleep problems, and mild memory lapses such as forgetting names or recent events. Routine behavior, self-care, and conversation remain normal.
50 Percent — $1,132.90 per Month
Reduced reliability and productivity. Examples include flat emotional expression, rambling or repetitive speech, panic attacks more than once a week, trouble understanding complex instructions, memory loss such as forgetting to complete tasks or retaining only well-learned material, impaired judgment, difficulty with abstract thinking, and problems establishing or maintaining work and social relationships.
70 Percent — $1,808.45 per Month
Deficiencies in most areas: work, family relationships, judgment, thinking, and mood. The regulation lists suicidal thoughts, obsessive rituals that disrupt daily routines, illogical or irrelevant speech, near-continuous panic or depression that impairs independent functioning, poor impulse control with episodes of unprovoked irritability or violence, spatial disorientation, neglected personal hygiene, difficulty adapting to stressful situations, and an inability to build or keep meaningful relationships.
100 Percent — $3,938.58 per Month
Total occupational and social impairment. The regulation points to gross impairment in thought processes or communication, persistent delusions or hallucinations, grossly inappropriate behavior, persistent danger of hurting yourself or others, intermittent inability to perform activities of daily living including personal hygiene, disorientation to time or place, and memory loss for the names of close relatives, your own occupation, or your own name.2eCFR. 38 CFR 4.130 – Schedule of Ratings, Mental Disorders
The Full 2026 Payment Schedule
Monthly compensation for a single veteran with no dependents in 2026:1U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Current Veterans Disability Compensation Rates
- 10 percent: $180.42
- 30 percent: $552.47
- 50 percent: $1,132.90
- 70 percent: $1,808.45
- 100 percent: $3,938.58
Veterans with dependents receive higher amounts starting at the 30 percent level. The jump from 90 to 100 percent is by far the largest single increase in the schedule, which is why veterans rated at 70 percent often pursue either a schedular increase or a Total Disability based on Individual Unemployability claim.
Diagnosis Matters Less Than Impairment
Section 4.130 covers diagnostic codes 9201 through 9440, spanning psychotic disorders, neurocognitive conditions, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, somatic symptom disorders, and dissociative conditions. Common codes include 9411 for PTSD, 9434 for major depressive disorder, 9400 for generalized anxiety disorder, 9432 for bipolar disorder, and 9440 for chronic adjustment disorder.2eCFR. 38 CFR 4.130 – Schedule of Ratings, Mental Disorders
Every one of those diagnoses is rated under the same General Rating Formula. A veteran with generalized anxiety and a veteran with PTSD who experience the same functional impairment receive the same rating. The VA cares about how much the condition limits work and relationships, not which specific label appears on the exam report.
All diagnoses must conform to the DSM-5. If an examination report contains a diagnosis that doesn’t meet DSM-5 criteria, the VA must return it to the examiner for correction before assigning a rating.3eCFR. 38 CFR 4.125 – Diagnosis of Mental Disorders
How the C&P Exam Drives the Rating
The Compensation and Pension examination is the VA’s primary tool for measuring impairment. During a C&P exam, the examiner reviews flagged records and your claimed condition, then evaluates how symptoms affect daily functioning. The examiner selects one of seven impairment levels on the Disability Benefits Questionnaire, from “no mental disorder diagnosis” through “total occupational and social impairment.”4U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Mental Disorders Disability Benefits Questionnaire That checkbox carries enormous weight in the rating decision.
The exam is a standardized administrative process, not a full clinical evaluation. Examiners usually do a quick records review, not a deep read of every treatment note. If your most significant symptoms don’t appear in ways the examiner can directly observe in a 30-to-60-minute appointment, they may not reach the report. Two things help fill that gap: buddy statements from family, friends, or coworkers describing how your condition shows up day-to-day, and detailed treatment records from your own therapist or psychiatrist.
Multiple Mental Health Diagnoses
Veterans often carry more than one mental health diagnosis. Someone might have PTSD, major depression, and generalized anxiety at the same time. The VA will almost always assign a single combined mental health rating rather than three separate ones. The reason is 38 CFR 4.14, the anti-pyramiding rule, which prohibits rating the same symptoms under multiple diagnostic codes.5eCFR. 38 CFR 4.14 – Avoidance of Pyramiding
Because conditions like PTSD, depression, and anxiety share overlapping symptoms such as trouble concentrating, mood swings, insomnia, and social withdrawal, the VA evaluates them together and assigns one percentage capturing the combined effect. When a co-occurring condition produces clearly distinct symptoms, such as sensory or cognitive deficits from traumatic brain injury alongside PTSD, separate ratings can apply. Where symptoms from a service-connected condition and a non-service-connected condition can’t be cleanly separated, VA regulations require that all symptoms be attributed to the service-connected diagnosis.
Effective Dates and Retroactive Pay
When a mental health condition worsens and the VA grants a higher rating, the effective date is usually either the date you filed the claim for increase or the date the evidence shows the condition got worse, whichever is later.6eCFR. 38 CFR 3.400 – General Effective Dates
There is a useful exception. If medical records or lay evidence show that your condition worsened within the one year before you filed, the VA can set the effective date back to the date the increase actually became apparent, but only if you filed within that one-year window. So if treatment records from eight months before your claim show a clear jump in severity, that becomes eight months of retroactive pay at the higher rate. File early. Every month of delay beyond that one-year lookback is money you cannot recover.
Getting 100 Percent Pay Without a 100 Percent Rating
A veteran whose schedular mental health rating falls below 100 percent but who can’t hold a job because of service-connected disabilities may qualify for Total Disability based on Individual Unemployability. TDIU pays at the 100 percent rate.7eCFR. 38 CFR 4.16 – Total Disability Ratings for Compensation Based on Unemployability
The schedular thresholds are one service-connected disability rated at 60 percent or more, or multiple disabilities with a combined rating of 70 percent or more with at least one condition rated at 40 percent or more. Multiple mental health conditions rated together count as a single disability because they affect the same body system.
The employment test is whether you can maintain substantially gainful work. Marginal employment, defined as annual earnings below the federal poverty threshold for one person (roughly the mid-$15,000 range for 2026), doesn’t count against you. Even earnings above the poverty line can be treated as marginal if you work in a protected environment such as a family business or a position with significant accommodations.
The 50 Percent Floor for Traumatic-Stress Discharges
Veterans discharged because of a mental disorder that developed from a highly stressful event get special treatment under 38 CFR 4.129. The VA must assign an initial rating of at least 50 percent and then schedule a follow-up examination within six months of discharge to determine whether the rating should be adjusted.8eCFR. 38 CFR 4.129 – Mental Disorders Due to Traumatic Stress After the six-month exam, the rating can go up, stay the same, or drop based on the evidence, so documenting symptoms carefully during the stabilization period matters.
If the Rating Is Too Low
The most common reason for a low mental health rating is a C&P exam that doesn’t capture the full severity of the condition. You have one year from the decision letter to challenge it, and three options under the Appeals Modernization Act:
- A Supplemental Claim, when you have new evidence the VA hasn’t seen, such as additional treatment records, a private psychological evaluation, or buddy statements.
- A Higher-Level Review, when the evidence is already in the file and you believe the rater got it wrong. No new evidence is allowed.9U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Higher-Level Reviews
- A Board of Veterans Appeals review by a Veterans Law Judge, with the option of a hearing or a decision on the record.
Federal law requires the VA to resolve close cases in your favor. Under 38 U.S.C. § 5107(b), when positive and negative evidence on a material issue is approximately balanced, the benefit of the doubt goes to the veteran.10GovInfo. 38 USC 5107 – Claimant Responsibility and Benefit of the Doubt If your symptoms could reasonably support either a 50 or a 70 percent rating, you should get the 70. Raters do not always apply this rule on their own, so citing it in a personal statement or through a representative can shift the outcome.