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September 18, 2020

VA Claims Made Easy: The Definitive Guide to the VA Disability Compensation Program

Last updated on December 21, 2022

I hope you enjoy reading this blog post.

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Hi fellow Veterans, Brian Reese here from VA Claims Insider, and this is your VA Claims Made Easy moment because we go in-depth to bring you the most common VA disabilities by body system, condition, and rating using REAL VBA data.

Filing a VA disability claim is pretty simple using the new VA.gov website, and in fact, I do a complete step-by-step tutorial in this video:

However, you don’t just want to “file” a VA claim—you want to file a WINNING VA disability claim, with the right strategy and evidence necessary to get the VA benefits you’ve earned by law.

The bottom line is every Veteran’s VA claim is different and unique to them, which means YOU must do an inventory of your body from head-to-toe, and carefully document your disability conditions in medical records, if/how they’re related to your military service, and how severe your symptoms are today.

Generally, the more severe your symptoms, the higher the VA disability rating you’ll receive.

Do you deserve a HIGHER VA disability rating by law?

In our experience with over 10,000 disabled veterans, 8/10 (80%) are UNDERRATED by the VA…

If you’d like to get *exclusive* members-only access to the most comprehensive VA disability education on the planet, and potentially get the VA rating you deserve in less time, please click the link below to join the world’s largest community of Veterans Helping Veterans Worldwide™

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Veterans can use the information gleaned from this post to get a better understanding of some of the more interesting facts about the VA disability system, along with some of the easiest things to claim for VA disability.

Think of this post as your VA Claims Made Easy moment, to help you get “inside” the 8-step VA claim process and arm yourself with data to help you in your VA disability claim journey.

The information in this post was compiled using the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) 2019-2020 annual report to Congress about the VA disability compensation program.

We analyzed the entire 52-page VBA report, including data from 56 VA regional offices, 14,558 employees, and 4,944,275 veterans with a combined service-connected VA disability rating of 0% or higher.

Here’s a summary of our key findings about the VA disability compensation system.

VA Claims Made Easy Data – Summary of Our Key Findings

VA Claims Made Easy
  • The VA spends an estimated $84.6 billion per year in VA disability compensation payments to disabled veterans and surviving spouses
  • Only 4,944,275 of the estimated 20,000,000 veterans in the United States have a combined VA disability rating of 0% or higher (just 24.7% of veterans)
  • An estimated 75.3% of veterans in the United States do NOT receive any sort of VA disability compensation benefits from the VA…this is a bit shocking
  • 4,944,275 veterans with a VA rating of 0% or higher have a total of 27,169,321 disability conditions service connected, meaning the average number of service-connected conditions per veteran is 5.50
  • A tale of two extremes: The most common combined VA disability rating is 10% (18.2% of total) followed by veterans with a 100% VA rating (15.7% of total)
  • Tinnitus (aka, “Ringing in the Ear Syndrome”) is still the #1 most common service-connected VA disability condition across all veteran demographics
  • 76.7% of all service-connected mental health conditions are either Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), or Chronic Adjustment Disorder (CAD)
  • The average VA disability rating for mental health is 70%, and the most common service-connected mental health disability is PTSD, which represents 59.1% of all service connected mental health conditions

10 Most Common Service Connected VA Disability Conditions

  1. Tinnitus (Ringing in the Ears)
  2. Hearing loss
  3. Limitation of flexion, knee
  4. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  5. Lumbosacral or cervical strain (neck condition)
  6. Scars, general
  7. Paralysis of the sciatic nerve (sciatica and radiculopathy)
  8. Limitation of motion of the ankle
  9. Migraines (headaches)
  10. Limitation of motion of the arm

Most Prevalent VA Disabilities for *NEW* VA Compensation Recipients in FY 2019

Tinnitus183,145
Limitation of flexion, knee108,037
Hearing loss88,055
Lumbosacral or cervical strain76,050
Limitation of motion of the arm71,038
Scars, burns (2nd degree)65,675
Limitation of motion of the ankle55,028
Post-traumatic stress disorder49,743
Migraine43,185
Paralysis of the sciatic nerve42,314
Total number of most prevalent disabilities782,270
Total number of disabilities1,594,475

Most Common VA Disabilities for *ALL* VA Compensation Recipients in FY 2019

Tinnitus2,174,738
Hearing loss1,306,066
Limitation of flexion, knee1,177,885
Post-traumatic stress disorder1,118,041
Lumbosacral or cervical strain1,063,781
Scars, general1,036,326
Paralysis of the sciatic nerve899,559
Limitation of motion of the ankle705,073
Migraine609,574
Limitation of motion of the arm567,656
Total number of most prevalent disabilities10,658,699
Total number of disabilities27,169,321

Average Combined VA Rating By Gender

Average Combined VA Disability Rating by GenderMale% MaleFemale% FemaleTotal% Total
0%7,3800.17%6100.12%8,4460.2%
10%818,56218.81%61,79211.91%900,68318.2%
20%389,1098.94%37,5097.23%435,3728.8%
30%342,6277.87%42,2268.14%384,8547.8%
40%336,4737.73%41,2397.95%383,7517.8%
50%258,1075.93%38,6197.44%300,8116.1%
60%378,7048.70%47,5299.16%426,2358.6%
70%406,1169.33%58,37511.25%469,6059.5%
80%393,6239.05%57,61211.10%451,2429.1%
90%332,6137.64%52,50510.12%387,8757.8%
100%687,54315.80%81,01515.61%778,16715.7%
Total4,350,857 519,031 4,944,275 

Total Estimated Annual Payments Made by VA to Disabled Veterans

Combined Service Connected VA Disability RatingTotal Estimated Annual Payments By VA Rating
0%$10,195,015
10%$1,524,869,117
20%$1,468,102,343
30%$2,194,624,188
40%$3,162,348,375
50%$3,501,935,330
60%$6,832,642,446
70%$10,851,269,942
80%$11,704,847,487
90%$11,348,935,795
100%$32,065,523,323
Total Estimated Annual VA Disability Payments to Disabled Veterans$84,665,293,361

Most Common VA Disability Conditions by Gender

VA Disability ConditionBody SystemMale%Female%Total% Total
TinnitusAuditory2,018,6008.60%129,6423.80%2,174,7388.00%
Hearing lossAuditory1,256,6305.40%26,3590.80%1,306,0664.80%
Limitation of flexion, kneeMusculoskeletal1,001,6324.30%170,7104.90%1,177,8854.30%
Post-traumatic stress disorderMental995,1894.20%112,1443.20%1,118,0414.10%
Lumbosacral or cervical strainMusculoskeletal881,4143.80%175,9075.10%1,063,7813.90%
Scars, generalSkin893,2323.80%130,7003.80%1,036,3263.80%
Paralysis of the sciatic nerveNeurological808,5833.40%83,0512.40%899,5593.30%
Limitation of motion of the ankleMusculoskeletal611,5592.60%89,9332.60%705,0732.60%
MigraineNeurological455,0261.90%151,1614.40%609,5742.20%
Limitation of motion of the armMusculoskeletal503,1252.10%62,0791.80%567,6562.10%
Total most prevalent VA disabilities  9,424,99040%1,131,68633%10,658,69939%
Total number of VA disabilities 23,457,597100%3,451,154100%27,169,321100%

Average VA Disability Rating by Body System

VA Disability Body SystemTotal numberPercent of all VA disabilitiesAverage VA disability rating
Musculoskeletal10,034,34936.90%10%
Auditory3,651,67213.40%10%
Neurological3,147,08611.60%10%
Skin2,952,06110.90%0%
Mental1,891,5527.00%70%
Respiratory1,241,2944.60%0%
Digestive1,108,8854.10%0%
Cardiovascular1,020,9943.80%10%
Genitourinary890,4533.30%0%
Endocrine517,8521.90%20%
The Eye315,4081.20%0%
Gynecological141,7070.50%0%
Dental/ Oral129,8160.50%10%
Hemic/ Lymphatic72,2570.30%0%
Infection/ Immune/ Nutrition53,9330.20%0%
Total All VA Disability Conditions27,169,321100%Average VA Rating is 10%

About the Author

Brian Reese
Brian Reese

Brian Reese

Brian Reese is a world-renowned VA disability benefits expert and the #1 bestselling author of VA Claim Secrets and You Deserve It. Motivated by his own frustration with the VA claim process, Brian founded VA Claims Insider to help disabled veterans secure their VA disability compensation faster, regardless of their past struggles with the VA. Since 2013, he has positively impacted the lives of over 10 million military, veterans, and their families.

A former active-duty Air Force officer, Brian has extensive experience leading diverse teams in challenging international environments, including a combat tour in Afghanistan in 2011 supporting Operation ENDURING FREEDOM.

Brian is a Distinguished Graduate of Management from the United States Air Force Academy and earned his MBA from Oklahoma State University’s Spears School of Business, where he was a National Honor Scholar, ranking in the top 1% of his class.

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Dear Veteran,
Here’s the brutal truth about VA disability claims:

According to our data, 8/10 (80%) of veterans reading this message right now are underrated by the VA…

This means you do NOT currently have the VA disability rating and compensation YOU deserve, and you could be missing out on thousands of dollars of tax-free compensation and benefits each month.

As a fellow disabled Veteran this is shameful and I’m on a mission to change it.

Brian Reese here, Air Force service-disabled Veteran and Founder @ VA Claims Insider.

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