Protected VA disability ratings are ratings the Department of Veterans Affairs can no longer freely reduce or sever once they have been in place long enough, or once the veteran or the condition meets other qualifying criteria. The core protections sit at three time thresholds — five, ten, and twenty years — and additional safeguards apply to veterans over 55, to static conditions, to Permanent and Total ratings, and to Total Disability based on Individual Unemployability. None of these protections are absolute, but each one raises the bar the VA must clear before touching your compensation.
The 5-Year Rule: Stabilized Ratings
A rating that has stayed at the same level for five or more years is treated as “stabilized” under 38 CFR § 3.344. At that point the VA has to review your full history of examinations and medical records before proposing a reduction, and any new exam it relies on must be at least as thorough as the ones the original rating was built on. A shallower exam cannot support a cut.1eCFR. 38 CFR 3.344 – Stabilization of Disability Evaluations
For conditions known to wax and wane — epilepsy, asthma, mental health conditions, gastrointestinal disorders — the protection goes further. A single good exam is not enough. The VA has to show that “sustained improvement has been demonstrated” across the whole record and that the improvement is “reasonably certain” to continue in ordinary daily life.2Cornell Law Institute. 38 CFR 3.344 – Stabilization of Disability Evaluations Where the evidence is unclear, the regulation tells the VA to leave the rating alone and reexamine in 18 to 30 months.
If the VA reduces a stabilized rating without following these safeguards, courts have treated the reduction as void from the start. In Greyzck v. West (1999), the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims held that reductions made without observing § 3.344 must be vacated and the prior rating restored.3U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Board of Veterans’ Appeals Decision, Docket No. 190905-57350
The 10-Year Rule: Service Connection Is Locked In
Once a disability has been service-connected for ten continuous years, 38 CFR § 3.957 bars the VA from severing that service connection. The exceptions are narrow: fraud, or military records that clearly show the veteran did not have the required service or character of discharge.4eCFR. 38 CFR 3.957 – Service Connection The underlying statute is 38 U.S.C. § 1159.
Read the rule carefully, because it is easy to misunderstand. The 10-year rule protects the connection, not the percentage. If your knee has been service-connected for twelve years at 30 percent, the VA cannot cut the tie between the condition and your service, so some compensation for that knee is yours for life. But the VA can still lower the percentage — from 30 to 10, for example — if it meets the standards for reducing a rating.5CCK Law. VA Disability 10-Year Rule Full protection against percentage reductions arrives at the 20-year mark.
The ten years run from the effective date of the original grant of service connection to the effective date of any proposed severance.4eCFR. 38 CFR 3.957 – Service Connection
The 20-Year Rule: A Rating Floor
Under 38 CFR § 3.951, a disability that has been continuously rated at or above a given level for 20 years or more cannot be reduced below that level. The only escape hatch is a showing that the original rating rested on fraud.6GovInfo. 38 CFR 3.951 – Preservation of Disability Ratings The same rule protects permanent total ratings held for pension purposes for 20 years. The clock runs from the effective date of the evaluation to the effective date of any proposed reduction. The statutory basis is 38 U.S.C. § 110.
In practical terms, once you clear 20 years at a given percentage, that percentage becomes a floor. The VA can still evaluate the condition, but it cannot drop you below it.
Static Disabilities and the Age-55 Exemption
Some protections have nothing to do with time. Under 38 CFR § 3.327, the VA is told not to schedule periodic reexaminations in several categories, no matter how long the rating has been in place: disabilities established as static (permanent and not expected to improve), disabilities already at the minimum rating for their diagnostic code, and cases where any possible reduction would not change the combined rating.7eCFR. 38 CFR 3.327 – Reexaminations A lost limb is the clearest example; there is nothing to reexamine.
Conditions that have not been formally labeled static can still escape reexamination if they have been stable without material improvement for five or more years, or if the disease is permanent in character with no likelihood of improvement.8Cornell Law Institute. 38 CFR 3.327 – Reexaminations
Age 55
Veterans over 55 get an extra layer. Section 3.327(b)(2)(iv) generally bars the VA from scheduling periodic reexaminations for veterans in this group “except under unusual circumstances,” which are decided case by case. Active cancers, for example, can still warrant reexamination.7eCFR. 38 CFR 3.327 – Reexaminations Because errors happen, the VA’s rating system now shows a warning when a specialist tries to schedule a reexam for a veteran over 55, and the specialist has to manually override it with a written justification.9VA Office of Inspector General. Reexamination Controls Report
Permanent and Total Ratings
A Permanent and Total (P&T) designation means the VA has decided your disabilities are not expected to improve over your lifetime. Veterans with P&T status are generally not scheduled for reexaminations, and the designation unlocks additional benefits like Dependents’ Educational Assistance under Chapter 35.
You can check whether you hold P&T status by looking at your rating decision letter for a checked “Permanent and Total” box, language about Chapter 35 DEA or CHAMPVA eligibility, or a note that no future examinations are scheduled.10CCK Law. Can VA Take Away 100 Percent Permanent and Total Disability
P&T is strong but not untouchable. The VA can revisit a P&T rating if it finds fraud, identifies a Clear and Unmistakable Error in the original decision, or reviews a new claim that produces a Compensation and Pension exam showing improvement. To reduce a P&T rating, though, the VA has to show “sustained” and “material” improvement backed by substantial medical evidence, not by a single exam or record.10CCK Law. Can VA Take Away 100 Percent Permanent and Total Disability
TDIU Protections
Total Disability based on Individual Unemployability pays at the 100 percent rate for veterans whose service-connected disabilities keep them from substantially gainful employment, even when the combined schedular rating is lower. TDIU carries its own protections and does not simply inherit the schedular time rules.
Under 38 CFR § 3.343(c)(1), the VA can revoke TDIU only when “actual employability is established by clear and convincing evidence.”11eCFR. 38 CFR 3.343 – Continuance of Total Disability Ratings Courts describe this as an intermediate standard, tougher than the ordinary preponderance-of-the-evidence test but not as demanding as beyond a reasonable doubt. The VA must prove your capacity for work to a “reasonable certainty.”12U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Board of Veterans’ Appeals Decision, Docket No. 20-30 764
“Substantially gainful employment” means work with significant productive duties, done for pay or profit, at an annual income above the federal poverty threshold for one person. Marginal employment — work below the poverty threshold, or a job in a protected environment such as a family business — does not count.12U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Board of Veterans’ Appeals Decision, Docket No. 20-30 764
Even a return to work does not immediately end TDIU. The VA cannot reduce the rating unless the veteran holds that employment for at least 12 consecutive months, and short interruptions do not restart the clock.13Cornell Law Institute. 38 CFR 3.343 – Continuance of Total Disability Ratings Participation in vocational rehabilitation or therapeutic programs under 38 U.S.C. § 1718 is expressly excluded from being used as evidence of employability.
Due Process the VA Must Follow Before Any Reduction
Whether or not a rating is technically “protected,” the VA has to follow 38 CFR § 3.105(e) and (i) before reducing any rating in a way that would lower compensation. Skipping these steps voids the reduction.
First, the VA has to issue a written proposal setting out the material facts and reasons for the contemplated cut. The proposal goes to your last address of record, and you have 60 days to submit evidence against it.14U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Board of Veterans’ Appeals Decision
The same notice must tell you about your right to request a predetermination hearing within 30 days. If you make that request on time, the VA has to keep paying benefits at the current level until it issues a final decision, and the hearing has to be run by VA personnel who were not part of the proposed reduction.15eCFR. 38 CFR 3.105 – Revision of Decisions
Missing any of these steps has consequences. In a 2025 Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision, the Board restored a 60 percent rating after finding that the regional office had implemented the reduction before the requested predetermination hearing was even held.16U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Board of Veterans’ Appeals Decision
When a Protected Rating Can Still Be Reduced
No rating is completely beyond review. Even long-standing protections give way in a few situations:
- Fraud. This exception cuts across the 10-year, 20-year, and P&T protections. Under 38 CFR § 3.1(aa)(2), fraud means an intentional misrepresentation of fact, or intentional failure to disclose pertinent facts, done to obtain or keep VA benefits.17U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Board of Veterans’ Appeals Decision
- Clear and Unmistakable Error. Under 38 CFR § 3.105(d), the VA can revisit a prior decision if the correct facts as they were known at the time were not before the adjudicator, or the law was applied incorrectly. The error must be undebatable and must have manifestly changed the outcome.
- Lack of qualifying service. For the 10-year rule, service connection can be severed if military records clearly show the veteran lacked the required service or character of discharge.
For ratings held fewer than five years, the burden is lower. The VA can reduce based on reexamination findings that show improvement, without meeting the sustained-improvement standard reserved for stabilized ratings.
How to Contest a Proposed or Actual Reduction
The 60-day window after a proposal is your first opportunity. Submitting fresh medical evidence and requesting a predetermination hearing (within 30 days) are the immediate moves, and a timely hearing request keeps your current payments in place while the case is worked.
If the reduction becomes final, the Appeals Modernization Act gives you three review lanes. A Supplemental Claim lets you add new and relevant evidence. A Higher-Level Review sends the same record to a more senior reviewer to look for errors. An appeal to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals puts the case before a Veterans Law Judge.18U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Decision Reviews and Appeals Accredited attorneys, claims agents, and Veterans Service Organizations can represent you at any stage.