Did you know?
What a 10% rating is actually worth
People turn down a 10% rating because the monthly check looks small. The check is the smallest part of it. Here is what 10% opens, and where it stops.
Why I built this page. I sat in the transition office at Fort Riley for two years. I watched
Soldiers walk away from a 10% rating because somebody told them it was not worth the paperwork. That is bad
advice. A 10% rating is the door. Some of what it opens is worth thousands of dollars a year and has nothing
to do with the monthly payment. This page is for information only. It is not sponsored, endorsed, or paid for
by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or any organization.
Veterans Crisis Line — dial 988, then press 1. Text 838255. Chat at
veteranscrisisline.net. TTY 711 then 988, or
1-800-799-4889. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You do not have to be enrolled in VA benefits or
health care to connect.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 correctly on every application. OPM's own guidance:
opm.gov/fedshirevets.
✅ Claim it on the application itself.
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.
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.
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.