Read this first. This page is mine, not VA's. I am not VA, I do not speak for VA,
and nothing here is authorized or endorsed by VA. What I do is put VA's own rules in plain words
and hand you the link to VA's own page so you can check me. VA disability compensation is a
tax-free monthly payment for a condition connected to your service. The official starting
point is
va.gov/disability.
Do this today
Intent to file — the step that pays you
This one is money. Most people never hear about it.
Your effective date is the date VA starts counting your money from. An intent to file
locks that date in while you go get your evidence together.
- File VA Form 21-0966, Intent to File a Claim for Compensation and/or Pension, or
Survivors Pension and/or DIC —
va.gov/find-forms/about-form-21-0966
- Or just start the application online. VA sets your effective date automatically when
you begin filling out the form, before you ever submit it
- You then have one year from that date to file the complete claim
Miss the year and you lose the earlier date. Filing a new intent to file inside that same
year does not reset the clock. Come back at 13 months and the retroactive pay is gone.
✅ Start the form. Then go get your records.
Step one
File the claim — five ways in
The form is VA Form 21-526EZ, Application for Disability Compensation and
Related Compensation Benefits.
If somebody tells you it is online or nothing, that is wrong. VA takes it five ways:
No computer, no internet, no patience for a website — you still have four other doors.
Take the in-person one and let somebody sit with you.
✅ Name the form. 21-526EZ.
Free help
Who can represent you, and what they may charge
VSO stands for Veterans Service Organization — not officer.
The person who sits with you is an accredited VSO representative.
VA recognizes three kinds of representative: an accredited attorney, an accredited claims
agent, or an accredited VSO representative.
- A VSO representative accredited by a recognized organization cannot charge you a fee at
all. Not a dollar, not a percentage
- An accredited attorney or claims agent may charge, but only after VA issues notice of
an initial decision on your claim
- A fee of no more than 20 percent of your past-due benefits is presumed reasonable
where the representation ran through the date of the benefits decision
- A fee over 33⅓ percent of past-due benefits is presumed unreasonable
- A person who is not accredited may not represent you at all
That 33⅓ number is the one to say out loud when somebody slides a 40 percent agreement
across the table.
✅ Free help exists. Use it first.
Step two
Evidence — what VA owes you, and what is still on you
VA has a duty to assist. That is a right you have, not a favor.
- VA obtains your service records, your VA medical records, and other Federal
records
- Once you authorize the release — VA Form 21-4142 and 21-4142a —
VA will make at least an initial request and one follow-up for your private medical,
employer, and state or local records
- You may submit medical records, buddy statements (a written account from somebody who
saw what happened to you or saw how you are now) and any other evidence yourself, at any time
Do not go to sleep on this. You are ultimately responsible for getting private records
into the file. If VA's requests to a doctor's office go unanswered, chase that office yourself
and send the records in directly. A claim decided on an incomplete record is still decided.
✅ VA helps. You still own the file.
Step three
The claim exam — only if VA asks
Also called a C&P exam, short for compensation and pension.
- VA asks you to have a claim exam only if it needs more information to decide your
claim
- VA may instead use the Acceptable Clinical Evidence (ACE) process — a review of
the medical records it already has, with no exam
- If VA does schedule one, go. Missing it delays your claim and VA may decide it on the
evidence already in hand
- Be honest and be thorough. Describe your worst days, not just the day you are sitting there
Missed it for good cause? Contact VA and it will reschedule you. VA names a death in the
Family, homelessness, hospitalization and terminal illness as good cause. Details:
va.gov/disability/va-claim-exam
✅ If they schedule it, show up.
The test
What VA is actually looking for
- A current disability — a diagnosis or condition you have now
- An in-service event — an injury, illness, exposure or event during service
- A nexus — a link between the two
- Severity — how the condition affects your daily life and your ability to work
You do not always have to prove the nexus. For a presumptive condition you only
have to meet the service requirement for that presumption. That covers toxic-exposure conditions
under the PACT Act, certain chronic conditions that show up within one year of discharge, and
conditions presumed from time as a prisoner of war.
Service connection also covers a condition you had before service that service made worse
(aggravation), a condition first diagnosed after discharge, and a condition caused by
another condition that is already service connected (secondary service connection).
✅ More doors in than most people think.
Eligibility
Service and discharge — the gate nobody explains
Guard and Reserve time counts. Read that again.
- Active duty, active duty for training, and inactive duty training all
count toward the service requirement
- An other than honorable, bad conduct or dishonorable discharge may make
you ineligible
A bad paper discharge is not the end of the road. You can apply for a
discharge
upgrade, or ask VA for a
Character of Discharge review — VA looks at the
circumstances of your service and decides whether you qualify for benefits anyway. Apply either
way. Do not decide for yourself that you are barred.
va.gov/disability/eligibility
✅ Let VA tell you no. Don't tell yourself.
After you file
The eight stages you will actually see
The status tool on VA.gov does not show six boxes. It shows eight stages.
- Claim received
- Initial review
- Evidence gathering
- Evidence review
- Rating
- Preparing decision letter
- Final review
- Claim decided
VA reviews all the evidence and may ask you for more. At the end you get a decision
letter with your rating and your payment information. Then the monthly payments start, and
other benefits may open up to you on the strength of that rating.
va.gov/disability/after-you-file-claim
✅ Eight stages. Nothing is broken.
Read this twice
How ratings are really set
There is no single mild / moderate / severe ladder. Anybody who prints one is
guessing.
Each condition is rated only at the levels its own diagnostic code provides in the
VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities, 38 CFR Part 4 — VA's rating rulebook. Those
levels measure one thing: the average impairment in earning capacity the condition causes.
- Some codes step 0, 10, 30, 50, 70, 100. That is the General Rating Formula for
Mental Disorders at 38 CFR 4.130 — the one that ends at total occupational and social
impairment. That phrase is the 100% test for mental health conditions only, not for
everything
- Other codes step 10, 20, 30, 40, or other steps entirely
- So a 20% or a 40% is a normal, real, paid outcome under a code that offers it — and
under a code that does not offer it, not getting one is not an error
- VA publishes a payment rate for every 10% level from 10% to 100%
Ratings are combined, not added. Two 50% ratings do not make 100%. VA uses the combined
ratings table, then converts the combined value to the nearest number divisible by 10 —
values ending in 1 through 4 round down, 5 through 9 round up. A combined 65 becomes 70.
va.gov/disability/about-disability-ratings
✅ Find your code. That is your ladder.
Don't throw it away
A 0% rating is not a denial
No monthly payment. Still a service-connected rating, and worth having.
- Care related to that service-connected condition carries no copay
- It is on the record if the condition gets worse and you file for an increase
- It can combine with other ratings later
- It may help you qualify for a VA health care priority group — a compensable 0%
rating reaches Priority Group 6, and a noncompensable 0% reaches Group 5 if your income is below
VA's limits:
va.gov/health-care/eligibility/priority-groups
✅ Keep the 0%. It is a foothold.
The money
What the rating pays, and pay for your Family
- The payment is monthly and tax-free
- At 30% and above, VA pays a higher rate if you have a dependent spouse, child, or
dependent parent
- At 10% and 20% it does not — dependents do not raise those rates
- Add a spouse or child on VA Form 21-686c. Add a dependent parent on
VA Form 21P-509
✅ Hit 30%? Get your Family added.
If it comes back wrong
Three lanes for a denial or a low rating
Pick the lane by what you are holding.
- Supplemental Claim — VA Form 20-0995. No deadline. You must have new and
relevant evidence. This is the only lane that accepts new evidence.
va.gov/decision-reviews/supplemental-claim
- Higher-Level Review — VA Form 20-0996. Within 1 year of the date on your
decision letter. A senior reviewer re-reads the same evidence. No new evidence allowed,
and it is not available for a contested claim.
va.gov/decision-reviews/higher-level-review
- Board Appeal — Notice of Disagreement, VA Form 10182. Within 1 year of
the decision letter, or 60 days for a contested claim. Three options: Direct Review,
Evidence Submission, or a Hearing.
va.gov/decision-reviews/board-appeal
Holding a new doctor's opinion? Higher-Level Review cannot look at it — file a Supplemental
Claim instead. Contested claim? Higher-Level Review is closed to you, so go to the Board, and
watch the 60 days.
✅ A no is a stage, not the end.