The money
The monthly payment
10% is the lowest rating that pays monthly compensation. The payment is tax-free.
- I am not printing a dollar amount here. The rate changes every December with the cost-of-living
adjustment, and a number I print today goes stale. Read it straight off
VA's rate table.
- File or increase a disability claim with VA Form 21-526EZ —
va.gov/disability/how-to-file-claim.
- Intent to File is VA Form 21-0966. It holds your effective date while you gather
evidence, which protects back pay. You do not need it if you file online — starting the online form
sets your effective date automatically.
Form 21-0966.
A 10% rating pays a flat amount. Extra compensation for a spouse, a child or a dependent parent
requires a combined rating of at least
30%. At 10% your payment does not go up because you have a
Family. Once you reach 30%, add a spouse or child with
VA Form 21-686c and a dependent parent with
VA Form 21P-509 —
va.gov/disability/add-remove-dependent.
✅ The check is the small part.
Retirees read this first
If you draw military retired pay
At 10% a retiree usually does not see new money. That does not make the rating worthless.
- VA compensation is offset against military retired pay. You waive an equal amount of retired pay to
receive it.
- Drawing both at once — Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay (CRDP) — requires a VA rating
of 50% or more.
- Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC) is a separate program for disabilities that are
combat-related. It is applied for separately, through your branch of service.
What a retiree still gains at 10%: retired pay is taxable, VA compensation is not, so the swap is a tax
advantage — plus every collateral benefit on the rest of this page. Those are the real prize at 10%.
✅ Rate the disability anyway.
Biggest hidden value
VA health care copays — gone
This is the item most people never hear about, and it is worth more than the check.
With a service-connected rating of 10% or higher you pay no copay for VA outpatient care
and no copay for VA inpatient hospital care — for any condition, not only your
service-connected one. If somebody told you the waiver only covers the condition you are rated for, they
were wrong.
- Medications are separate. No copay for medication prescribed for a service-connected
condition, at any rating. No medication copay at all if you are rated 50% or higher. Otherwise
medications carry a tiered copay with an annual cap — current amounts are on
va.gov/health-care/copay-rates.
✅ Run the numbers on a year of visits.
Getting in
Enrolling in VA health care
A rating helps you get in. It is not by itself the whole gate — know the real rule.
- You must have served in the active military and not received a dishonorable discharge.
- If you enlisted after September 7, 1980, or entered active duty after October 16, 1981,
you must have served 24 continuous months or the full period you were called up.
- That minimum does not apply if you were discharged for a disability. It also does not apply to
a hardship discharge or an early out. Do not count yourself out on months alone.
- A compensable service-connected rating gives you enhanced eligibility — a better priority
group. At 10%–20% that is Priority Group 3.
- Enroll with VA Form 10-10EZ —
va.gov/health-care/eligibility.
✅ Apply and let VA decide.
Travel pay
No 30% minimum. None.
The most common wrong belief I hear: "travel pay starts at 30%." It does not.
If you are traveling for treatment or care of a service-connected condition, you qualify for
Beneficiary Travel at any rating — 10% included. There is no percentage minimum for that path.
- You also qualify if you have a combined rating of 30% or higher, receive VA pension, have income
below the maximum annual VA pension rate, cannot afford the travel under VA's guidelines, or are
traveling for a scheduled VA claim exam.
- File online through BTSSS, or by mail with VA Form 10-3542.
- VA pays 41.5 cents per mile. A deductible of $3 one-way / $6 round-trip applies, capped
at $18 per month. It is waived for pension recipients and low-income veterans, and it does not
apply to travel for a scheduled VA claim exam.
- va.gov/health-care/get-reimbursed-for-travel-pay
· current mileage rate
✅ File it every single trip.
Five figures
VA home loan funding fee — waived
The largest single dollar item a 10% rating can hand you, and almost nobody connects it.
- You are exempt from the VA loan funding fee if you are receiving VA compensation for a
service-connected disability — at any rating, 10% included.
- You are also exempt if you are eligible to receive VA compensation for a service-connected
disability but are receiving retirement or active-duty pay instead. That covers a lot of retirees.
- The fee is a percentage of the loan amount, so on a normal house it runs into the thousands. Your
lender and VA calculate the exact figure — current percentages are on
VA's funding fee page.
✅ Tell your lender about the rating.
Every week
Commissary, exchange and MWR
Changed January 1, 2020. No minimum percentage.
- Veterans with any service-connected disability rating who were honorably discharged may shop
at commissaries and military exchanges and use MWR retail facilities.
- Bring your Veteran Health Identification Card (VHIC), or a letter from VA together with your
driver's license or passport.
- va.gov/resources/commissary-and-exchange-privileges-for-veterans
✅ Small savings, every week, forever.
Career
Veteran Readiness and Employment (VR&E)
Chapter 31. Training, school, tools, a business plan — do not screen yourself out of it.
- Basic eligibility: a discharge that is not dishonorable, and a service-connected rating of at
least 10%. Then you apply.
- VA decides entitlement after you apply. At 10%, VA must find you have a serious
employment handicap. At 20% or more, an employment handicap. A VR&E counselor makes that call — not
you, and not me.
- Apply with VA Form 28-1900.
The time limit is misquoted constantly. If your eligibility began on or after
January 1,
2013, there is
no time limit to apply. Otherwise a 12-year period runs from the
later
of two dates: the date you received notice of your separation from active duty, or the date you received
your
first VA service-connected disability rating. It does not run from your discharge. And even
an expired period can be extended if a counselor finds a serious employment handicap. Discharged in 2004
but first rated in 2022? Your clock started in 2022. Apply.
VR&E eligibility
✅ Let VA tell you no. Not a buddy.
Federal jobs
Veterans' Preference
A compensable rating moves you up. Know the ceiling too, so you aim right.
- A compensable service-connected rating of at least 10% but less than 30% puts you in the CP
preference category when you apply for eligible federal jobs.
- Preference applies to competitive and excepted service positions in the executive branch.
Where it stops. The separate "30 Percent or More Disabled Veteran" appointing authority —
a hiring path of its own — is not available at 10%. And preference does not apply to the Senior
Executive Service, to Senate-confirmed positions, or to promotion, reassignment, transfer or
reinstatement once you are already in.
✅ Claim it on the application itself.
Your state
State benefits — check the tier
Many states add benefits. Most are keyed to rating level, and the tiers matter.
- Common ones: property tax relief, reduced vehicle registration fees, hunting and fishing licenses,
state education benefits, state park discounts.
- Read the tier before you apply. Plenty of state benefits require 30%, 50% or 100%. At 10% you
may be applying for something you cannot get — or skipping a tier you do qualify for.
- A 10%-level example, Texas: $5,000 of assessed property value exempt at 10%–29%, $7,500 at
30%–49%, $10,000 at 50%–69%, $12,000 at 70%–100%. But a disabled veteran who is 65 or older with at
least a 10% rating, or who is totally blind in one or both eyes, or who has lost the use of one or
more limbs, qualifies for the full $12,000 regardless of tier.
(Texas Comptroller)
- That is one state standing in for fifty. Check your own state's veterans agency directly. A national
directory of state offices is kept by NASDVA at nasdva.us — that is
a private membership association, not a government agency, so use it to find the office, then deal with
the state agency itself.
✅ Your tier decides. Read it first.
Protect it
10% is a foundation — and a deadline clock
Service connection is established. If the condition worsens, you file for an increase.
- File for an increase with VA Form 21-526EZ, the same form as the original claim.
If you disagree with a decision, these are the deadlines. Miss them and you lose the right.
- Supplemental Claim — VA Form 20-0995. No deadline. Filing within one year can protect the
earlier effective date.
(VA)
- Higher-Level Review — VA Form 20-0996. Within 1 year of the date on your decision
letter. (VA)
- Board Appeal — VA Form 10182. Within 1 year. A contested claim goes to the Board
only, within 60 days of the date on your decision letter.
(VA)
✅ Date on the letter starts the clock.
Do not pay for this
Help is free. Know the fee rules.
Nobody needs to take a cut of your back pay to get you through a claim.
- An accredited VSO representative's services on VA claims are always free. Always.
- An accredited attorney or claims agent may charge a fee only after VA issues notice of
an initial decision on the claim. Not before.
- A fee not exceeding 20% of past-due benefits awarded is presumed reasonable.
- Find accredited help:
va.gov/get-help-from-accredited-representative.
- Need to call VA? Get the current numbers from VA's own list at
va.gov/resources/helpful-va-phone-numbers.
I am not going to print digits I have not confirmed on a VA page.
✅ Free help exists. Use it.