A VA service-connected rating is a percentage from 0% to 100% that the Department of Veterans Affairs assigns to a medical condition it has linked to your military service. That percentage reflects how much the condition reduces your average ability to earn a living, and it drives two things above all others: your monthly tax-free compensation and your place in the VA health care system. For 2026, monthly payments for a veteran with no dependents run from $180.42 at 10% to $3,938.58 at 100%.
What Makes a Condition Service Connected
Three pieces have to come together. You need a current medical diagnosis, evidence that something happened during your service (an injury, illness, or exposure), and a medical opinion tying the two together. That medical opinion is often called a nexus letter. A doctor reviews your service records and your current condition and states whether the condition is “at least as likely as not” related to your time in uniform.
That phrasing carries real weight. The VA decides claims on a 50/50 standard: when the evidence for and against is roughly equal on any issue, federal law requires the VA to decide in the veteran’s favor. This benefit-of-the-doubt rule applies to every element of the claim, including whether the condition exists, whether something happened in service, and whether the two connect. Many veterans assume they need overwhelming proof. They don’t.
After you file, the VA usually schedules a Compensation and Pension exam. This is not a treatment appointment. The examiner documents how severe your condition is and, in some cases, offers an opinion on service connection using a standardized Disability Benefits Questionnaire. A rating specialist at the regional office then weighs that report against your service records, private medical evidence, and any lay statements from people who witnessed your injury or its effects.
When You Don’t Have to Prove a Direct Link
Not every claim requires you to build the nexus from scratch. Two categories skip the individual proof step.
Presumptive Conditions
The VA maintains lists of diseases it presumes were caused by service under certain circumstances. Dozens of chronic diseases qualify if they appear to a compensable degree within one year of separation from active duty, including arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, most cancers, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, and lupus.
Toxic exposure has its own expanded lists. Agent Orange presumptives include type 2 diabetes, prostate cancer, ischemic heart disease, bladder cancer, several types of leukemia and lymphoma, Parkinson’s disease, and hypertension (added under the PACT Act). Gulf War veterans may qualify for presumptive connection for chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, and certain undiagnosed illnesses that appeared after service in Southwest Asia. The PACT Act also expanded burn pit presumptives to cover dozens of cancers affecting the respiratory system, brain, head, neck, kidneys, and other organs for veterans who served in specific locations after August 1990.
Secondary Conditions
A condition caused by an already service-connected disability is itself eligible for service connection. If a service-connected knee injury changes your gait and that leads to chronic hip pain, the hip can be rated as secondary to the knee. The same applies when a service-connected condition worsens an existing non-service-connected problem; in that case, the VA rates the amount of additional severity caused by the service-connected condition. Many veterans overlook this pathway because they assume only conditions that started in service can qualify.
How the Percentage Is Decided
The VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities assigns every ratable condition a four-digit diagnostic code. Each code lays out specific criteria describing which symptoms or test results correspond to each percentage, from 0% to 100% in ten-percent steps. A respiratory condition might be rated on pulmonary function test results; a joint problem depends on range of motion. The rating is meant to capture the average impact on earning capacity for someone with that level of impairment, not your specific job.
A 0% rating confirms the VA recognizes your condition as service connected but finds it doesn’t currently cause enough impairment to warrant compensation. That sounds useless. It isn’t. A 0% rating gets you VA health care for that condition at no cost, and it creates a record that makes an increase far easier to secure if the condition worsens. Treat it as a foot in the door rather than a denial.
Combining More Than One Rating
When you have more than one service-connected condition, the VA does not simply add the percentages. It treats your body as starting at 100% efficient and subtracts each disability’s impact from what remains. If your first condition is rated 30%, you’re considered 70% efficient. A second 30% rating takes 30% of that remaining 70%, adding 21 percentage points for a combined value of 51%.
The VA then rounds the combined value to the nearest number divisible by ten. Values ending in five round up, so a 55% combined value becomes 60%. In the example above, 51% rounds down to 50% for payment. The Combined Ratings Table lets you cross-reference individual ratings and find the combined value directly. The math means your combined rating will always be lower than the straight sum, and it is impossible to exceed 100% no matter how many conditions you have.
The Bilateral Factor
If disabilities affect both arms, both legs, or paired muscle groups, the VA adds a bilateral factor. After combining the ratings for the paired disabilities using the standard table, the VA adds 10% of that combined value before folding it into any remaining conditions. A right knee rated 20% and a left knee rated 10% combine to 28%. Ten percent of 28 is 2.8, making the bilateral combined value 30.8% before it meets your other ratings. The adjustment recognizes that paired disabilities limit you more than the same ratings would on unrelated body parts.
2026 Monthly Compensation
Your rating percentage directly sets your monthly payment. The amounts below took effect December 1, 2025, are adjusted annually for cost of living, and are exempt from federal and state income taxes.
- 10%: $180.42
- 20%: $356.66
- 30%: $552.47
- 40%: $795.84
- 50%: $1,132.90
- 60%: $1,435.02
- 70%: $1,808.45
- 80%: $2,102.15
- 90%: $2,362.30
- 100%: $3,938.58
These are the rates for a veteran with no dependents. Veterans rated 30% or higher receive additional monthly compensation for a spouse, children, and dependent parents, with amounts that scale with both the rating and the number of dependents.
Health Care Access Tied to Your Rating
Your rating also places you in the VA’s eight-level priority system for health care enrollment. Higher ratings mean better access and lower out-of-pocket costs.
- Priority Group 1: veterans rated 50% or higher, or those the VA considers unemployable due to service-connected conditions.
- Priority Group 2: veterans rated 30% or 40%.
- Priority Group 3: former POWs, Purple Heart recipients, veterans discharged for a disability incurred in the line of duty, and veterans with a rating below 30%, among others.
Group placement has direct financial consequences. Veterans with a service-connected rating of 10% or higher pay no copays for outpatient primary care or specialty visits. Veterans in Priority Group 1 pay no medication copays at all. Veterans in lower priority groups without a compensable rating may pay $15 per primary care visit, $50 per specialty visit, and tiered medication copays from $5 to $33 depending on whether the drug is generic or brand-name, subject to an annual cap of $700.
Getting the 100% Payment Without a 100% Rating
A veteran whose combined rating falls below 100% can still receive compensation at the 100% rate if service-connected conditions prevent steady employment. This is called Total Disability based on Individual Unemployability, or TDIU. The standard path requires either one condition rated at 60% or higher, or a combined rating of 70% with at least one condition at 40%. In certain cases, such as frequent hospitalization, the VA can grant TDIU even without those thresholds. Your rating on paper doesn’t change; the payment does.
When the VA decides a disability is static and unlikely to improve, it may designate the condition as Permanent and Total. That status generally ends periodic re-examinations and unlocks the Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance program, which provides education funding for a spouse or child.
Veterans with the most severe disabilities may also qualify for Special Monthly Compensation, which pays above the standard 100% rate. SMC covers situations like the loss or loss of use of a hand, foot, or creative organ (SMC-K); the loss of both feet, one hand and one foot, or blindness in both eyes (SMC-L); and progressively more severe combinations of limb loss, blindness, and the need for regular aid and attendance at higher levels.
Protections That Keep Your Rating in Place
Veterans often worry the VA will reduce a rating after a re-examination. Federal law provides three layers of protection that grow stronger the longer a rating has been in place.
- Five-year rule: If your rating has been in effect for five years or more, the VA cannot reduce it based on a single exam. It must show sustained improvement under the ordinary conditions of daily life, not a good day at a medical appointment. Exams less thorough than the one that established the rating cannot justify a reduction.
- Ten-year rule: Once a condition has been service connected for ten years, the VA cannot sever service connection entirely unless the original grant was based on fraud or your military records show you didn’t have the required service. The rating can still change, but the link to service is locked in.
- Twenty-year rule: A rating continuously in effect at the same level for twenty years or more cannot be reduced below that level unless it was based on fraud. The twenty-year period runs from the effective date of the rating to the effective date of any proposed reduction.
These protections stack. A veteran with a 70% rating in place for twenty-two years has all three.
Effective Dates and Back Pay
The effective date of your claim controls when benefits start, not the date the VA finally decides your case. For an original claim, the effective date is generally the later of two dates: the day the VA received your claim or the day your condition first became disabling. If you file within one year of separating from active duty, the effective date can go back to the day after discharge.
Filing an Intent to File (VA Form 21-0966) is one of the simplest ways to protect your effective date. It tells the VA you plan to submit a claim and gives you up to a year to gather evidence and file the full application. If the claim is approved, benefits can be backdated to the date the VA processed your Intent to File rather than the date you filed the completed claim, which can add up to months of retroactive pay. You can only have one active Intent to File at a time, and starting your full application cancels it, so there is no reason to delay filing one as soon as you’re considering a claim.
Filing and Disagreeing With a Decision
You file for disability compensation using VA Form 21-526EZ. The fastest method is filing online at va.gov, which also automatically submits an Intent to File. You can also file by mail or in person at a VA regional office. Before filing, gather your service treatment records, any private medical records related to your condition, and a nexus letter if you have one. Lay statements from fellow service members or family who witnessed your injury or its progression can strengthen a claim, especially when official records are incomplete. The VA has a duty to assist you in gathering evidence, but the strength of your claim depends heavily on what you submit.
If the VA denies your claim or assigns a rating you believe is too low, you generally have one year from the decision to choose one of three options. A Supplemental Claim lets you add new and relevant evidence the VA didn’t already have, which is the right path when you know what was missing. A Higher-Level Review sends the same evidence to a more senior VA reviewer, which fits when you believe the VA misapplied a rule or overlooked evidence it already had. A Board Appeal puts your case in front of a Veterans Law Judge at the Board of Veterans’ Appeals, with options for a direct review, additional evidence, or a hearing. Picking the right lane matters, because filing a Higher-Level Review when your real problem is missing evidence wastes time.