VA disability is permanent monthly income for service-connected health impairment. The system doesn't teach you the rules — this guide does. Four moves matter most: File an Intent to File today, understand the three pathways (direct/presumptive/secondary), audit your existing service-connected conditions for unfiled secondaries, and check PACT Act eligibility if you served post-9/11 or Gulf War.
📑 On this page
A note before you begin
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs owes you money. Possibly a great deal of money, every month, for the rest of your life. The exact amount depends on what happened to you in service, what’s wrong with you now, and — most importantly — what you can prove and how you prove it.
The system does not teach you how it works. Service members are told to “file a claim, see a VSO, don’t hire claim sharks,” and then dropped into a 38-CFR labyrinth designed by lawyers, administered by raters working from checklists, and policed by examiners who see twenty veterans a day. The veterans who win the biggest awards are not the ones with the worst injuries. They are the ones who understood the rules before they filed.
This guide is the manual you should have been handed at separation. It explains how VA disability compensation actually works — the three pathways to service connection, the math behind combined ratings, why secondary claims often dwarf the original claim, what makes a nexus letter win or lose, how to read a rating decision, when to appeal and how, and the dozen collateral benefits that get triggered at certain thresholds but that the VA will not proactively offer you.
If you read nothing else
Four moves matter most:
- File an Intent to File (Form 21-0966) the day you decide you might claim something. It costs nothing and locks in your effective date for 12 months. See Intent to File.
- Understand the three pathways to service connection — Direct, Presumptive, and Secondary — and which one applies to each of your conditions. See The three pathways.
- For every condition you already have service-connected, list every other medical issue you have, and ask: “Could this be caused or aggravated by it, or by the meds I take for it?” Every “maybe” is a potential secondary claim. See Secondary service connection.
- If you served in qualifying Gulf War or post-9/11 locations, you are PACT Act eligible. Over 300 conditions are now presumptively service-connected with no nexus required. See The PACT Act.
Other resources — tools · conditions · how to file · forms · FAQ