Veterans Affairs (VA) ensures that veterans who served in the military receive multiple benefits as a sign of gratitude for their service and commitment to the nation. VA disability compensation is one such benefit for individuals who suffered injuries or illnesses as a result of their service. This includes both physical illnesses and injuries and mental health conditions. This scheme provides eligible veterans with monthly tax-free payments to cover their care and welfare expenses.

What conditions qualify for VA disability benefits?
The VA needs to ensure that veterans who receive disability compensation are rightful recipients of it. To ensure this, there are some eligibility criteria that veterans must meet.

Essentially, there are two main requirements to qualify for disability compensation:

The veteran in question has a current illness or injury (or both, as is the case in many instances). This injury or illness must be a known, medically verified one, and it must affect the veteran’s mind and/or body.
The second requirement states that the veteran seeking the benefit has served on active duty, had attended and served in active duty for training, or for inactive duty training.

Going deeper, at least one of the criteria listed below must be true:

The sickness or injury sustained by a veteran can be linked to one’s service in the military. This is known as an in-service disability claim.

If the above point is not applicable, then at least either of the two below must be:

The veteran had an existing injury or illness before joining the military, and serving in the military only made the condition worse.

or,

A veteran had a disability related to their active-duty service. This disability did not appear until after the veteran’s service ended. This is called a post-service disability claim.

For certain conditions, known as presumptive conditions, the VA automatically presumes the cause to be the veteran’s military service. In these cases, the veteran need not prove that their service caused the disability, they only need to meet the service requirements for the same. These presumptive illnesses include chronic diseases that appeared a year after the veteran’s discharge from the military, an illness caused by one’s time spent as a prisoner of war (POW), or an illness caused due to contact with contaminants or hazardous chemicals or materials.

What are the Veterans Disability Claims compensation amounts?
The compensation amounts can undergo modifications every year. As per the latest updates, the compensation amount for veterans with a 10% disability rating is $171.23 per month, and for those with a 20% disability rating is $338.49 per month.

For veterans with a disability rating ranging from 30% to 60%, the compensation amount ranges from $524.31 per month to $1,686.88 per month. These amounts are for veterans alone, and those with dependent spouses or parents, but no children. For spouses of veterans who receive aid and attendance benefits, the added amounts comes into play, ranging from $31 per month to $114 per month, and gets attached to the basic monthly compensation amounts. In this same category, for disability ratings upwards of 70%, veterans can receive compensation amounts ranging from $1,716.28 to $4,072.37, while the added amounts range from $72 to $191.4.

In the category of veterans with dependents, including children, veterans with disability ratings between 30% and 60% receive compensation amounts ranging from $565.31 to $1,644.88, while the added amounts range from $31 to $114. On the other hand, for veterans with disability ratings upwards of 70%, the compensation amounts range from $1,813.28 to $4,211.74, while the added amounts range from $72 to $191.14.

How to file for VA disability benefits?
For claiming VA disability benefits, veterans need to first be eligible as per the criteria mentioned above. Once the eligibility is ensured, the applicants can check if they need any more forms or medical certificates to prove their condition or injuries. One must gather all the necessary supporting documents to support their claims.

Here are the 3 key documents veterans will require while filing for the benefits:

VA medical records and hospital reports
These documents will prove that the veterans sustained injuries or illness during their service or because of their contributions to the military.

Supporting statements
Written and signed/attested statements will be needed from family members, clergy members, friends, law enforcement personnel, and other people with whom the veteran served in the military. These statements basically exist to provide key details of how certain conditions emerged in people and how they became worse.

Private health reports and hospital records
Like VA records, these ones will just reinforce the facts and information about a veteran’s injury or illness sustained during military service.

Once all the documents are gathered, filing for the claims is a straightforward process. Veterans can do it through the mail by using an Application for Disability Compensation and Related Compensation Benefits form available online. Once filled, this form needs to be sent to the address provided on the website.

Apart from mail, veterans can also bring the application form and the evidence documents to their nearest VA regional office. If veterans are using the fax route, they can send their applications to a specific number for US residents, and a different number for individuals residing outside of the US.

Besides these, veterans can also work with a trained professional (called an “accredited representative of the VA”) to get help with filing their claims.

Perhaps the easiest way to file a claim is by applying online on the Veterans Affairs website. On average, it takes the VA 159.8 days to verify and complete disability-related claims.