Okay Brian, let’s get right to it: Is age a factor in VA claims?
Answer: No, your age cannot affect your service connected VA disability benefits!
In accordance with CFR Title 38, Part 4 Subpart A § 4.19, “age in service connected VA disability claims,”
- Age may not be considered as a factor in evaluating service-connected disability.
- Unemployability, in service-connected claims, associated with advancing age or intercurrent disability, may not be used as a basis for a total disability rating.
Pro Tip: However, age is a factor in evaluations of disability not resulting from service; for example, for the purposes of VA pension benefits.
Is Age a Factor in VA Claims?
No, age is not a factor in VA claims.
The only time age can impact your VA disability benefits is if the VA is trying to determine your eligibility for 100 percent Permanent and Total disability.
Age can be a determining factor in determining “permanence” of a “total” disability.
Does Age Affect a 100 Percent Permanent and Total VA Disability Rating?
Important: The VA may consider your age when determining “permanence” of a “total” VA disability.
Permanence of total disability will be taken to exist when such impairment is reasonably certain to continue throughout the life of the disabled person.
- The permanent loss or loss of use of both hands, or of both feet, or of one hand and one foot, or of the sight of both eyes, or becoming permanently helpless or bedridden constitutes permanent total disability.
- Diseases and injuries of long standing which are actually totally incapacitating will be regarded as permanently and totally disabling when the probability of permanent improvement under treatment is remote.
- Permanent total disability ratings may not be granted as a result of any incapacity from acute infectious disease, accident, or injury, unless there is present one of the recognized combinations or permanent loss of use of extremities or sight, or the person is in the strict sense permanently helpless or bedridden, or when it is reasonably certain that a subsidence of the acute or temporary symptoms will be followed by irreducible totality of disability by way of residuals.
Is Age a Factor for VA Pension?
Yes, age is a factor in determining eligibility for VA pension benefits.
To establish entitlement to Veterans Pension, the following elements must be shown:
- Qualifying service
- A permanent and total (P&T) disability, or age 65 or older
- Countable income is below the maximum annual pension rate (MAPR), and
- Net worth limitations are met
Pro Tip: If the veteran is 65 years or older, a rating determination of P&T disability is not required for VA pension benefits eligibility.
About the Author
Brian Reese
Brian Reese is one of the top VA disability benefits experts in the world and bestselling author of You Deserve It: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Veteran Benefits You’ve Earned (Second Edition).
Brian’s frustration with the VA claim process led him to create VA Claims Insider, which provides disabled veterans with tips, strategies, and lessons learned to win their VA disability compensation claim, faster, even if they’ve already filed, been denied, gave up, or don’t know where to start.
As the founder of VA Claims Insider and CEO of Military Disability Made Easy, he has helped serve more than 10 million military members and veterans since 2013 through free online educational resources.
He is a former active duty Air Force officer with extensive experience leading hundreds of individuals and multi-functional teams in challenging international environments, including a combat tour to Afghanistan in 2011 supporting Operation ENDURING FREEDOM.
Brian is a Distinguished Graduate of Management from the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO, and he holds an MBA from Oklahoma State University’s Spears School of Business, Stillwater, OK, where he was a National Honor Scholar (Top 1% of Graduate School class).
