VA Disability Cheat Sheet Revealed! (The Insider’s Guide)

In this post, I’ll reveal and explain our VA disability cheat sheet, so you know exactly what documents and evidence you need to submit with each type of VA disability claim.

Think of this as an “if” “then” choose-your-own-adventure guide to help you get 100% of the VA benefits you’ve earned for your service to our country.

Here’s the baseline VA disability cheat sheet for all VA disability claims, assuming you’re eligible for benefits under the law.

We call it the VA Claims Insider Golden Circle:

• #1. Diagnosis of a current disability in a medical record. If yes, go to #2.

• #2. Evidence of an in-service event, injury, disease, or aggravation. If yes, go to #3.

• #3. “Nexus” meaning link or connection between #1 and #2 above via competent medical evidence. If yes, go to #4.

• #4. Severity of symptoms in terms of Frequency (how often), Severity (how bad), and Duration (how long) to include negative impacts to your work/life. This is the final step in The Caluza Triangle and it’s what determines your final VA rating percentage for the disability.

Is There a VA Disability Cheat Sheet?

Yes, there absolutely is a VA disability cheat sheet!

VA Claims Insider’s cheat sheet is broken out into the 5 types of VA service connection along with evidence requirements for each.

Use these tips and strategies to help you prove service connection, even if you’ve already filed, been denied, or gave up.

Pro Tip: VA disability claims are won or lost based on MEDICAL EVIDENCE!

How to Increase Your VA Rating FASTER (Even If You Don’t Know Where to Start!)

Veterans: Want to know what makes my blood boil?

The fact that 87% of us are stuck, frustrated, and underrated by the VA…

That means 87/100 veterans do NOT currently have the VA disability benefits they’ve earned.

And we’re on a MISSION to change it so you and your family get the VA disability benefits you deserve for serving our country.

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#1. VA Direct Service Connection Cheat Sheet

This is the most common method of service connection for VA disability benefits.

You’re telling the VA that your current disability condition is the direct result of your active duty military service.

Maybe it was a training incident, car accident, combat deployment, stress from the job, or other in-service incident, injury, event, or disease that directly caused or made your current disability condition worse.

An example is combat PTSD due to an IED attack in Iraq.

The PTSD is due to your combat deployment, which is directly related to your military service.

Evidence Requirements for Direct Service Connection:

• REQUIRED: DD 214

• REQUIRED: Diagnosis of a current disability in a medical record (service treatment records, VA medical records, or private medical records)

• REQUIRED: Evidence of an in-service event, injury, disease, or aggravation in either service treatment records or military personnel records

• RECOMMENDED: Nexus Letter for Direct Service Connection (if you’ve been out of the military for more than 12 months)

• OPTIONAL: Statement in Support of a Claim (write one for each disability condition you’re filing for and explain the VA Claims Insider Golden Circle for each of the 4 elements)

• OPTIONAL: Buddy Letter (if you’re trying to prove an in-service stressor event and it’s not already documented in your service treatment records)

#2. VA Secondary Service Connection Cheat Sheet

In accordance with 38 CFR § 3.310 current disability condition that is proximately due to or the result of a service-connected disease or injury shall also be service connected.

Let’s say, for example, you developed ringing in your ears, called “Tinnitus” while serving.

Today, even though you are no longer serving, that service-connected tinnitus might be causing migraine headaches, anxiety, and/or depression.

Service connection on a secondary basis requires a “showing of causation.”

Instead of proving that your disability is directly service-connected, you’ll need to prove that it’s caused or made worse by a different disability (which is service-connected).

In this example, you could file a VA disability claim for migraine headaches secondary to your service-connected tinnitus.

>> Click HERE to Download Our FREE eBook of 100+ Conditions for Secondary Service Connection!

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Evidence Requirements for Secondary Service Connection:

• REQUIRED: DD 214

• REQUIRED: Diagnosis of a current secondary VA disability you’re attempting to link to the current service connected disability (must be documented in a medical record)

• REQUIRED: Current service connected primary disability (e.g., your current list of service connected disabilities from your VA.gov account)

• REQUIRED: Nexus Letter for Secondary Condition establishing a connection between the service-connected primary condition and the current disability

• OPTIONAL: Statement in Support of a Claim (write one for each secondary disability condition you’re filing for and explain the VA Claims Insider Golden Circle for each of the 4 elements)

#3. VA Presumptive Service Connection Cheat Sheet

A VA presumptive disability is one that the VA “presumes” to be service connected, even if there’s no specific Nexus (meaning “link” or “connection”) for service connection.

It is generally easier to prove presumptive service connection, assuming you qualify.

Presumptive disability works like this: If you served at X location during the qualifying period and developed Y condition as a result, then X + Y = automatic service connection.

Instead of having to prove a service-connected disability, you only need to show on your DD 214 that you were in an eligible location during a specific period and that you developed a qualifying condition as a result.

38 CFR § 3.309 discusses diseases subject to presumptive service-connection in more detail.

Pro Tip: While you are not required to provide a “Nexus” to establish presumptive service connection, it’s highly recommended that you at least write a personal statement as to WHY you think your disability meets the legal requirements for presumptive service connection. You might want to obtain a medical nexus letter as well.

Evidence Requirements for Presumptive Service Connection:

• REQUIRED: DD 214 with evidence of qualifying service during the qualifying period

• REQUIRED: Diagnosis of a current presumptive disability in a medical record (service treatment records, VA medical records, or private medical records)

• OPTIONAL: Statement in Support of a Claim (write one for each presumptive disability condition you’re filing for and explain the VA Claims Insider Golden Circle for each of the 4 elements)

• OPTIONAL: Buddy Letter (if you’re trying to prove you served at a specific location during the qualifying period, exposure to x, y, and z, and it’s not already documented on your DD 214 and/or service treatment records)

#4. VA Service Connection by Aggravation Cheat Sheet

Sometimes a pre-existing condition is worsened by military service.

For example, a veteran may have had flat feet prior to entering service but wearing military boots and prolonged standing worsened his or her flat feet leading to a painful disability called plantar fasciitis, which is eligible for compensation under the law.

Additionally, if a veteran has a service-connected knee condition that aggravates a non-service-connected back condition, they could get service connection for their back based on aggravation—provided they can prove that their condition was worsened beyond its natural progression by military service.

Evidence Requirements for Service Connection by Aggravation:

• REQUIRED: DD 214

• REQUIRED: Diagnosis of a current VA disability you’re attempting to link by aggravation to the current service connected disability (must be documented in a medical record)

• REQUIRED: Current service connected primary disability (e.g., your current list of service connected disabilities from your VA.gov account)

• REQUIRED: Nexus Letter for a Secondary Condition via Aggravation establishing a connection and a worsening beyond its natural progression between the service-connected primary condition and the current disability

• OPTIONAL: Statement in Support of a Claim (write one for each secondary disability condition by aggravation you’re filing for and explain the VA Claims Insider Golden Circle for each of the 4 elements)

#5. VA Service Connection by 38 U.S.C 1151 Cheat Sheet

This refers to disabilities or death that result from “hospital care, medical or surgical treatment, or examination” by a VA medical professional or facility, or due to participation in a program of vocational rehabilitation.

In our experience, this is uncommon.

Pro Tip: Evidence requirements vary depending on the unique circumstances of the case.

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About the Author

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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).