What Does It Mean To Have a Service-Connected VA Disability?

Are you a veteran suffering from an injury or disease that happened while you were on active duty with the United States military? Or, did you have an existing disability that your active service worsened? If so, you might have a service-connected disability and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) might help cover your associated long-term costs.

As its name implies, VA Disability Compensation is a tax-free benefit that the VA provides to impaired persons whose condition is linked in some capacity to their time serving our country. If you have a service-connected disability, you could be eligible for this payout. 

What is a Service Connected Disability?

According to the VA, this disability compensation is a monetary benefit delivered to certain veterans. If you were disabled by an illness or injury that either occurred or was exacerbated during your active military service, this benefit applies to you. The VA grants the payout on a monthly basis, helping you cover medical expenses and your general cost of living. 

You are deemed ineligible if you were separated or discharged from service through dishonorable conditions. 

If you’re granted the payout, you can expect to receive monthly disability compensation. The amount is based on your VA Rating. Your rating is measured according to the loss of productivity you lose because of your disability. It is measured in pain, movement, frequency of symptoms, or various other factors depending on the claim.  

The five types of service connection are:

• Direct service connection
• Secondary service connection
• Service connection based on aggravation
• Presumptive service connection
• 1151 claims

Calculating Your Benefit Payout

Your service-connected disability benefit will vary depending on the degree of your disability, as well as the number of eligible dependents you currently support. If your disability rating is 30% or higher, you could be eligible to receive additional allowances to cover the following dependents:

• Your spouse
• Dependent parents
• Minor children
• School-age children between the ages of 18 and 23
• Children permanently incapable of supporting themselves due to a disability that occurred before they turned 18

The VA will gauge any additional amount you receive based on your disability rating and the total number of dependents under your care. 

How much money you’re already receiving from the government has no bearing on your VA rating. These benefits include:

• Military retirement pay
• Special Separation Benefit (SSB)
• Voluntary Separation Incentive (VSI)
• Disability severance pay

If you’re living with a certain kind of severe disability, you could also be eligible for additional money known as special monthly compensation or SMC. Any money you receive under this VA program is not subjected to any state or federal income tax.

Understanding Your VA Disability Rating

As you learn more about government disability pay, you’ll discover that the VA Ratings Authorities assign different rating percentages to your disability. These calculations help determine how much of a payout you’ll receive. 

Your rating is meant to reflect the severity of your disability. For instance, if you receive a rating of 0%, this indicates that your disability does not negatively impact your quality of life at all. On the other hand, a rating of 100% means that your disability controls your life to the extent that you cannot work or care for yourself. 

Each rating is rounded off to the nearest 10, ranging from 0% to 100%. If you have more than one service-connected disability, the VA will assess these conditions individually and grant a Total Combined VA Disability Rating. VA math can be tricky. They don’t add your ratings together, but they are combined, so 50+20+20=70%.

You’ll receive your final rating as you file your VA Disability Claim and go through the comprehensive process. 

Use our VA disability calculator to estimate your
combined VA rating and monthly payment

Annual VA Service-Connected Disability Compensation Rates

The VA adjusts its service-connected disability compensation rates every year.

A major factor that controls these payouts is the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). At 2.8%, the COLA rate for 2019 is the highest that it’s been since 2012. In 2020, the COLA rate will increase by 1.6%. The VA follows the same rate increases as the Social Security Administration.

Military Retirement Pay and Disability Compensation

Wondering if you can reap both retirement and disability benefits from the government? The short answer is “maybe.”

The government normally prohibits retirement pay and disability pay from concurrent distribution. However, there is an exception. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) operates a program known as Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay (CRDP). Under this program, some veterans can receive both VA disability compensation and military retirement pay.

To be eligible for dual payouts under the CRDP, you must meet certain qualifying conditions. Note that you do not need to apply for this benefit. Rather, the VA and military pay center will coordinate the distribution of your benefits.

The two conditions you must meet to receive the CRDP benefit include:

• Have a VA service-connected rating of at least 50%
• Be eligible to receive retirement pay

In addition, you must meet at least one of these other conditions:

• Retired from military service based on longevity 
• Retired from military service due to a disability, with at least 20 qualifying years of service
• Retired from the National Guard or Reserve service with at least 20 qualifying years of service

If you retired from service under the Temporary Early Retirement Authority (TERA), this benefit still applies to you. In addition, if you retired due to your disability with at least 20 qualifying years of service, the VA will offset your CRDP payout accordingly. To do so, they’ll take into account the difference between your disability-based retirement pay and your longevity-based retirement pay.

Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC)

What if your disability is related to a specific injury you experienced during active combat? In this case, you might be eligible for a special DoD program and incentive called Combat-Related Special Compensation or CRSC.

This is a tax-free monthly payment that qualifying veterans can receive. In addition to covering their cost of living, this payout can also help restore any retirement pay they might have lost due to the VA disability compensation offset. To see if you qualify and to apply for the CRSC program, veterans should contact their specific branch of service. 

The basic qualification requirements veterans must meet under the CRSC initiative include:

• Retired from military service based on longevity
• Retired from military service due to disability (includes veterans with fewer than 20 years of service)
• Retired from the National Guard or Reserve service with at least 20 qualifying years of service
• Waived retirement pay to receive VA disability compensation
• Have a service-related disability eligible for compensation

Did you retire from service due to your disability? If so, the government will offset your CRSC payout to account for the difference between your disability-based retirement pay and your longevity-based retirement pay. 

To apply for any combat-related determination, you’ll need to go through your service branch. This includes veterans whose disability is linked to in-service exposure to environmental hazards, discussed below.

Exposure to Adverse Environmental Conditions

If you served in Vietnam between January 9, 1962, and May 7, 1975, you could have a combat-related disability eligible for VA compensation, including CRSC benefits. 

This is because, during that timeframe, military personnel were exposed to Agent Orange and other dangerous herbicides used during military operations. This applies to veterans working on land in Vietnam or on a ship operating on the inland waterway.

These chemicals are linked to a myriad of dangerous and life-threatening conditions. While this list isn’t exhaustive, some of the most prominent medical concerns include:

• Soft-tissue sarcoma
• Hodgkin’s disease
• Multiple myeloma
• Respiratory cancers 
• Prostate cancer
• Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
• Type 2 diabetes
• Chronic B-cell leukemias
• Ischemic heart disease
• Parkinson’s disease

If you were exposed to these herbicides during this timeframe, the VA presumes you were subjected to their negative effects. As such, you could be eligible to claim a service-related disability benefit if you’re experiencing a medical issue that can be traced back to this exposure. 

Exposure to Chemical Radiation

In a similar vein, you could also meet service-related disability qualifications if you’ve ever been exposed to harmful chemical radiation during your time in service.

Throughout history, veterans have participated in military exercises that put them in the direct path of radiation. Called “Atomic Veterans” these are service members who were present for one or more of the following:

• The occupation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan between Aug. 6, 1945, and July 1, 1946,
• The atmospheric nuclear weapons tests conducted throughout Nevada and the Pacific Ocean between 1945 and 1962
• The underground nuclear weapons tests conducted on Amchitka Island, Alaska before Jan. 1, 1974
• Gaseous diffusion plant operation in Portsmouth, Ohio; Paducah, Kentucky; or K25 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for at least 250 days before Feb. 1, 1992
• Held captive as Prisoners of War (POWs) during World War II
• The cleanup of nuclear testing sites at Enewetak Atoll between Jan. 1, 1977, and Dec. 31, 1980
• The clean-up effort in Palomares, Spain, between Jan. 17, 1966, and March 31, 1967, after the collision of planes carrying thermonuclear weapons
• The clean-up effort at Thule Air Force Base in Greenland between Jan. 21, 1968, and Sept. 25, 1968, after a B-52 bomber carrying nuclear weapons crashed 

If you participated in any of these radiation risk activities while you were on active duty, active training duty or inactive training duty, you could still feel the effects today. A few of the service-related disabilities connected to these events include:

• Leukemia (all forms except chronic lymphocytic leukemia)
• Many forms of cancer (thyroid, breast, stomach, pancreas, brain, lung, colon, ovary, urinary tract and more)
• Lymphomas (all forms except Hodgkin’s disease)
• Multiple myeloma
• Primary liver cancer

Note that there might be instances in which you were exposed to harmful radiation outside of these specific military timeframes. If this is the case, the VA will take a few different factors into consideration to determine your total service-connected disability. These may include:

• The amount of radiation exposure you received
• The total duration of the exposure
• The elapsed time between the exposure and the onset of your disease or disability
• Your gender
• Your family history
• The sensitivity of any exposed tissue
• The likelihood that a non-service exposure could lead to disease

Gulf War-Related Chronic Disabilities

If you served in the Gulf War and are suffering from a chronic disability, you could also be eligible for a service-connected disability benefit. The VA has deemed that this group of service members could experience a range of undiagnosed or unexplained illnesses connected to many different symptoms. 

If you have a disability that falls into this category and has persisted for more than six months, it can be categorized as chronic. 

To be eligible under this category, your undiagnosed illness must have originated during active military duty in the Southwest Asia theater of military operations from August 2, 1990, to July 31, 1991. In the time since, it should have caused you to be disabled by at least 10% before December 31, 2016.

Just because those dates have passed does not mean that you can’t apply for benefits from that time. If you have evidence of medical issues from that time, use them in your application. We’ll help you get all of that paperwork together to make your best claim.

Ranging from chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia to headaches, muscle pain, and sleep disturbances, these undiagnosed or medically unexplainable illnesses can vary. 

In addition to those conditions, Gulf War veterans might also experience unexplained infectious diseases, which the VA could recognize as a service-disabled disability. These are also varied and include such diseases as Malaria, non-typhoid Salmonella and the West Nile virus.

To be eligible for payout, your infectious disease must have occurred during either of these events:

• Service at the Southwest Asia theater of operations during the Gulf War period of Aug. 2, 1990 
• Service in the Gulf War up to the present 
• Active military personnel serving in Afghanistan on or after September 19, 2001

Presumptive Conditions and Disability Compensation

What happens if you entered active service with a chronic or tropical disease that your time in the military exacerbated?

In this case, you might be eligible for a VA service-connected disability benefit. From multiple sclerosis and diabetes mellitus to arthritis, there are many conditions that fall into this category. If your disease increased in severity to the point that it rendered you at least 10% disabled, this could apply to you as long as you reported the concern in a timely manner following your service. 

The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) defines the specific diseases covered. You can also learn more about specific reporting time limits.

Available Housing Grants and Supplemental Support

In addition to your monthly service-related disability benefit, you could also receive a VA housing grant to make it easier to live with your service-connected disability. The VA provides these grants to help you perform the following:

• Build a new house specially adapted to your needs
• Adapt and renovate the home you already own to meet your needs
• Buy a new standard house and modify it to meet your needs

If you meet the qualification requirements, you could receive up to three grants in this category. 

In addition to housing assistance, the VA also provides eligible veterans with access to the following benefits:

• Automobile allowance
• Clothing allowance
• Financial aid for homebound aid and attendance

Know and Defend Your Rights as a Disabled Veteran

After reading this post, do you believe that you fall into one of the above categories? If you’re a veteran suffering from a service-connected disability, you shouldn’t have to suffer in silence.

There is a range of VA benefits designed to help you thrive in your post-military life. If you’re concerned that you aren’t receiving the full range of compensation that you qualify for, we’re here to help.

Our law firm is dedicated to helping veterans understand and defend their rights. Contact us today and let’s take this next step together. 

Frequently Asked Questions