The VA rates diabetes at five fixed levels under 38 CFR 4.119, Diagnostic Code 7913: 10%, 20%, 40%, 60%, and 100%. Which tier you receive depends on how intensive your treatment is and whether a physician has restricted your activities, and every element listed at a tier must be met to qualify for it. In 2026, those ratings pay a single veteran with no dependents between $180.42 and $3,938.58 per month, tax-free.1Veterans Affairs. Current Veterans Disability Compensation Rates There is no 30%, 50%, or 70% rating for diabetes itself, though secondary complications rated on their own can push your combined rating to any percentage.
The Five Rating Tiers Under Diagnostic Code 7913
Each tier is conjunctive. You need every element on the list, not just most of them.2eCFR. 38 CFR 4.119 – Schedule of Ratings, Endocrine System
- 10%. Diabetes manageable by restricted diet alone. No medication required. Pays $180.42 per month.
- 20%. Requires insulin and a restricted diet, or an oral hypoglycemic agent and a restricted diet. Most veterans on metformin or a similar drug for Type 2 diabetes land here. Pays $356.66 per month.
- 40%. Requires insulin, a restricted diet, and regulation of activities. All three must be documented. Pays $795.84 per month.
- 60%. Everything at 40%, plus episodes of ketoacidosis or hypoglycemic reactions requiring one or two hospitalizations per year or twice-monthly visits to a diabetic care provider, plus complications that would not be compensable if rated separately. Pays $1,435.02 per month.
- 100%. More than one daily insulin injection, restricted diet, regulation of activities, and episodes of ketoacidosis or hypoglycemic reactions requiring at least three hospitalizations per year or weekly provider visits, plus either progressive loss of weight and strength or complications that would be compensable if rated separately. Pays $3,938.58 per month.
Payments listed are 2026 rates for a single veteran with no dependents.1Veterans Affairs. Current Veterans Disability Compensation Rates At 30% and above, you receive additional compensation for a spouse, children, or dependent parents.
Why Regulation of Activities Decides the 20% vs. 40% Jump
The single most contested element in a diabetes claim is regulation of activities, and it is where the most money gets left behind. A veteran on daily insulin with a restricted diet rates 20%. Add a physician-ordered activity restriction, and the rating doubles to 40%, worth roughly $439 more each month.2eCFR. 38 CFR 4.119 – Schedule of Ratings, Endocrine System
The restriction has to come from a medical provider, not from your own sense of what feels safe. Your doctor needs to state that strenuous occupational and recreational activities are medically contraindicated because of the risk of hypoglycemic episodes. A note recommending “moderate exercise” does not meet the standard. The Diabetes Mellitus Disability Benefits Questionnaire includes a specific checkbox on regulation of activities and asks the physician to give examples.3U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Diabetes Mellitus Disability Benefits Questionnaire If your treating physician has ever told you to limit exertion because of your diabetes, get it in writing before you file or attend a Compensation and Pension exam.
Getting Service-Connected First
The VA will not assign any rating until your diabetes is connected to your service. There are three routes.
Direct Service Connection
Service treatment records showing elevated blood glucose, a formal diagnosis, or treatment for diabetes during active duty, combined with a current diagnosis, establish direct service connection. A medical opinion linking the two is typically needed unless the records make it obvious.
Presumptive Service Connection
Type 2 diabetes is a presumptive condition for veterans exposed to herbicide agents, including Agent Orange, under 38 CFR 3.309(e).4eCFR. 38 CFR 3.309 – Disease Subject to Presumptive Service Connection If you served in Vietnam, Thailand, or another qualifying location during a qualifying period, the VA presumes the exposure caused your Type 2 diabetes. You need only a current diagnosis and proof of qualifying service.
The PACT Act extended toxic exposure presumptions to veterans who served on or after August 2, 1990, in Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, the United Arab Emirates, or the airspace above; and to those who served on or after September 11, 2001, in Afghanistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Uzbekistan, Yemen, or their airspace.5Veterans Affairs. The PACT Act and Your VA Benefits The Act’s primary additions were respiratory illnesses and cancers, but its broader toxic exposure framework can support diabetes claims tied to burn pit and other environmental exposures in those regions.
Secondary Service Connection
If another service-connected condition caused or worsened your diabetes, you can claim it as secondary under 38 CFR 3.310. The regulation covers both proximate cause and aggravation.6eCFR. 38 CFR 3.310 – Disabilities That Are Proximately Due to, or Aggravated by, Service-Connected Disease or Injury For aggravation, the VA requires medical evidence of the baseline severity before the aggravation began, and it pays only for the increase beyond that baseline.
Secondary Conditions Get Their Own Ratings
Note 1 under Diagnostic Code 7913 tells raters to evaluate compensable complications of diabetes separately.7eCFR. 38 CFR 4.119 – Endocrine System This is where a diabetes claim becomes far more valuable than the base rating suggests. Only noncompensable complications get folded into the diabetes rating; anything that would rate at 10% or higher on its own gets its own diagnostic code.
- Peripheral neuropathy is rated under Diagnostic Code 8520 for the lower extremities. Each limb is rated individually, from 10% for mild symptoms up to 80% for complete paralysis with foot drop.
- Diabetic nephropathy is rated on the severity of renal dysfunction.
- Diabetic retinopathy is rated on measured visual impairment.
- Erectile dysfunction caused by diabetes usually rates 0% on its own but qualifies for Special Monthly Compensation at the K level, adding $139.87 per month in 2026.8Veterans Affairs. Current Special Monthly Compensation Rates
- Depression or anxiety linked by a clinician to chronic disease management can be rated separately from 0% to 100% based on occupational and social impairment.
Each of these needs medical evidence tying it to the diabetes.6eCFR. 38 CFR 3.310 – Disabilities That Are Proximately Due to, or Aggravated by, Service-Connected Disease or Injury A specialist’s opinion carries more weight than a general practitioner’s, especially for neuropathy and retinopathy.
How Combined Ratings Actually Work
Multiple ratings do not add. The VA uses the “whole person” method: it starts with your highest rating, then applies each additional rating to the non-disabled portion that remains.9Veterans Affairs. About Disability Ratings
Take a veteran with diabetes at 20% and 20% peripheral neuropathy in each leg. That is not 60%. The first 20% leaves 80% of the whole person. The next 20% applied to that 80% adds 16 points, for 36%. The third 20% applied to the remaining 64% adds about 13 points, for roughly 49%, which rounds to 50%. Combined values round to the nearest 10% at the end.
TDIU When You Can’t Work
If diabetes and its complications keep you from holding a substantially gainful job but your combined rating falls short of 100%, Total Disability Based on Individual Unemployability pays at the 100% rate anyway. Under 38 CFR 4.16(a), the baseline threshold is either one disability at 60% or a combined rating of 70% with at least one condition at 40%.10eCFR. 38 CFR 4.16 – Total Disability Ratings for Compensation Based on Unemployability A veteran with diabetes at 40% and bilateral neuropathy that pushes the combined rating past 70% can meet it.
The VA considers employment marginal if annual earned income does not exceed the federal poverty threshold for a single person, which is $15,960 in 2026. Earned income counts wages and self-employment; it excludes VA compensation, Social Security, and investment income. You apply on VA Form 21-8940, which asks for a five-year work history, your highest lifetime earnings, and when the disability began affecting your ability to work.11U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Veteran’s Application for Increased Compensation Based on Unemployability The critical showing is that your service-connected conditions, not age or unrelated health problems, are what prevent gainful work.
Documentation That Supports the Rating You’re Claiming
The VA rates what is in the file. Missing evidence usually produces a lower rating, not the benefit of the doubt.
The Diabetes DBQ is the single most important document. It asks your physician to record the treatment type, whether insulin is required and how often, whether the diet is restricted, whether activities are regulated, the frequency of ketoacidotic or hypoglycemic episodes, hospitalizations in the past 12 months, and any progressive unintentional weight loss.3U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Diabetes Mellitus Disability Benefits Questionnaire For weight loss, baseline weight is your average over the two years before the condition began; the physician documents the percentage lost from that baseline.
You can have your own private physician complete the DBQ before you file. That gives you more control over how thoroughly each element is addressed than relying only on a Compensation and Pension examiner who may have limited time with your history.
Beyond the DBQ, private treatment records showing consistent care and disease progression, hemoglobin A1C results documenting blood sugar control over time, and service treatment records establishing onset all matter. For secondary conditions, specialist notes carry the weight.
If Your Claim Is Denied or Underrated
A denial or a low rating is not the end. You have three review options, and the right one depends on why the decision came out the way it did.
A Supplemental Claim is the right move when you have new and relevant evidence the VA has not seen. Filing within one year of the decision preserves the original effective date; there is no absolute deadline, but the effective date protection matters.12eCFR. 38 CFR 3.2501 – Supplemental Claims A Higher-Level Review is for cases where you believe the VA made a factual or legal error on the existing record; no new evidence is allowed, and it must be filed within one year.13Veterans Affairs. Higher-Level Reviews A Board Appeal takes the case to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals under one of three dockets: direct review, evidence submission, or a hearing before a Veterans Law Judge, and it also must be filed within a year.
For diabetes claims, the most common winning path is a Supplemental Claim built around a stronger medical opinion or a fuller DBQ. If a C&P examiner wrote that regulation of activities was not required and your treating endocrinologist disagrees in writing, that competing opinion is the kind of new evidence that flips a denied 40% claim. VA-accredited attorneys who handle these appeals typically work on contingency, charging up to 20% of any retroactive benefits awarded.
One timing note that protects back pay: if you are still gathering evidence, submit an Intent to File on VA Form 21-0966. That locks in a potential effective date and gives you a year to complete the claim.14Veterans Affairs. Your Intent to File a VA Claim Filing within a year of separation can produce an effective date as early as the day after discharge, and claims tied to a change in law like the PACT Act can reach back to the date the law took effect if filed within a year of that date.15Veterans Affairs. About VA Form 21-0966