If you are a veteran living in the Virginia Beach area, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA) offers many services, both locally and through its national system, including compensation benefits for service-related disabilities.
Stone Rose Law provides legal help to Virginia Beach veterans who have extensive experience serving clients with service-related injuries, chronic illnesses, and other conditions to make initial claims for benefits, to adjust existing benefits, and to make supplemental claims and appeals after VA claim denials.
To learn more about our VA system legal representation services for Virginia veterans, and to schedule a free consultation with an experienced Stone Rose Virginia Beach veterans benefits attorney, call us at (480) 498-8998. You can also reach us online.
VA resources available in Virginia Beach for veterans include the Virginia Beach VA Clinic and the Virginia Beach Vet Center. The Hampton VA Medical Center is about 20 miles away. The VA is planning to add a new outpatient clinic in Virginia Beach as well.
Virginia state-level facilities for Virginia Beach veterans include the Pembroke Office of the Virginia Department of Veterans Services and the Jones & Cabacoy Veterans Care Center.
The VA offers several types of disability compensation for eligible veterans in Virginia Beach. You can apply online, by mail, or in person at the Roanoke Regional Office.
Regardless of which filing option you choose, the VA requires that you prove three things to receive disability compensation:
To qualify as a veteran eligible to receive VA benefits, you must have qualifying active duty service (including active duty training or inactive duty training) and a service-connected condition as defined by VA regulations.
If you’ve received a dishonorable discharge or an other-than-honorable discharge, it may be better to first see if you can work with an experienced VA benefits attorney to improve your discharge by appealing to the VA.
The VA defines a disability as a current physical or mental illness or impairment that your active duty military service either caused or made worse.
You may have eligibility for compensation from the VA if your service-connected injuries make you less than 100% able-bodied, which can be proven with medical records.
As part of the claims process, the VA decides whether you have a service-connected disability on a case-by-case basis. Your service medical records and any records of post-service medical treatment you have received will be part of the claims evidence the VA will consider.
Some conditions are presumed service-connected under VA rules (e.g., certain chronic diseases linked to specific service eras/exposures) and don’t require direct evidence of in-service onset, but many others require such evidence.
The VA rejects many disability claims because they lack sufficient evidence to create a service connection. One of our Virginia Beach VA disability attorneys at Stone Rose Law can help you gather all the necessary documents so you can provide evidence to overcome this potential obstacle.
What follows are some specific medical conditions the VA will consider in addition to disabilities that arose directly because of a service-connected disabling event.
A latent condition is one you had when you entered military service, but has not yet become disabling.
If your latent condition becomes worse after you leave the service, the VA will decide whether an event connected to your service aggravated the condition.
Another way you can receive a service-connected disability is if it comes from a separate disability that itself is service-connected.
For example, your doctor might diagnose you as having post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) based on a traumatic event you experienced while in service. If your PTSD treatment includes drugs that have a side effect of contributing to significant weight gain, this additional weight could eventually cause you to be diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.
These events make it possible to trace a secondary service connection by showing that the PTSD treatment caused your diabetes.
The VA will deny your claim if your injury, illness, or disabling condition results from doing something unrelated to a service-connected condition.
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If the VA approves your initial or additional disability compensation claim, it will assign you a VA disability rating. Your rating will range from 0% (non-compensable) to 100% for totally disabled veterans.
Factors that go into deciding your disability rating include whether you have multiple disabilities (most veteran claims are for more than one disability) and the severity of each disability.
The VA uses a formula to determine your combined disability rating if you have more than one disability. The VA calculations use a complex collection of tables in a process some call “VA Math” to arrive at a final combined figure.
One of our Stone Rose Law VA lawyers can help you understand and demonstrate the extent and degree of your disability to help pursue the disability compensation you need.
Use our VA Disability Calculator for an estimate of potential VA compensation; actual amounts depend on VA decisions.
How much you can receive in monthly disability benefits compensation depends on your single or combined disability rating. The higher your overall disability rating, the more you can receive.
For 2026, the disability rating compensation for an individual veteran is as follows:
| Combined VA Disability Rating | 2026 Monthly Compensation |
|---|---|
| 10% | $180.42 |
| 20% | $356.66 |
| 30% | $552.47 |
| 40% | $795.84 |
| 50% | $1,132.90 |
| 60% | $1,435.02 |
| 70% | $1,808.45 |
| 80% | $2,102.15 |
| 90% | $2,362.30 |
| 100% | $3,938.58 |
These monthly payments increase for disabled veterans with dependents.
If you have one or more dependents, and your combined disability rating is at least 30%, you can qualify for additional monthly compensation depending on how many qualifying dependents you have.
A qualifying dependent can include:
Special monthly compensation (SMC) is available if you are a disabled veteran whose service-connected disability is severe enough that you need more than what a 100% disability rating provides.
SMC is available based on criteria such as specific disabilities (e.g., loss of a limb or creative organ), need for regular aid and attendance, permanent housebound status, or traumatic brain injury requiring ongoing assistance.
Except for SMC category K, SMC benefits replace the monthly compensation benefit you would otherwise receive.
The VA rates SMC benefits through the letters K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, and T.
Here are the 2026 SMC compensation amounts.
| SMC Category | 2026 SMC Monthly Benefit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| K | $139.87 | Paid in addition to your 100% monthly disability compensation |
| L | $4,900.82 | |
| L-½ | $5,154.17 | |
| M | $5,408.56 | |
| M-½ | $5,780.19 | |
| N | $6,152.64 | |
| N-½ | $6,514.55 | |
| O and P | $6,877.12 | No difference in pay between these two categories |
| R-1 | $9,826.88 | |
| R-2 and T | $11,271.67 | No difference in pay between these two categories |
| S | $4,408.52 |
If you are a qualifying surviving dependent of a veteran whose death was caused by that person’s military service, you may be eligible for dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC).
The base DIC monthly compensation amount for 2026 is $1,699.35.
This amount can increase based on factors like whether the deceased veteran was totally disabled, whether a surviving spouse requires aid and attendance services or is housebound because of a disability, and whether a surviving spouse has children under age 18.
There are multiple special VA veteran benefits for which you may be eligible.
You may qualify for Total Disability based on Individual Unemployability (TDIU) if your service-connected disabilities prevent you from securing and maintaining substantially gainful employment.
You might also receive compensation for costs if you need hospital or convalescent care, or assistance with paying for transportation and clothing.
A Stone Rose Law Virginia Beach veterans disability attorney can help you learn which may apply to your needs.
If VA denies your claim, you may request a Higher-Level Review, file a Supplemental Claim with new and relevant evidence, or submit a Board Appeal (VA Form 10182) under the modernized process. You generally must request a Higher-Level Review, file a Supplemental Claim, or submit a Board Appeal within one year of your decision letter to preserve the earliest effective date.
At Stone Rose Law, our Virginia Beach VA disability lawyers systematically approach your specific VA claim. After your consultation with an accredited VA disability benefits attorney and with your permission, our attorneys will obtain a copy of your VA claims file.
Because our attorneys have access to the same systems the VA uses to maintain claims files, we can quickly obtain your claims file.
Once we access your claims file, we review all the information it contains. This involves reviewing all your service treatment records, VA records, previous claims for benefits, and rating decisions.
We thoroughly scour your records to look for:
After reviewing your file and developing a plan for your initial claim, a member of our legal team will discuss our findings and recommendations for the application process with you.
If you have never applied for veterans’ disability benefits before, we will provide legal assistance at no cost to prepare and file a claim. Our experienced attorneys will also monitor your claim, assist you with preparing for C&P examinations, and advise you of any VA decisions as part of this free service.
If you are denied disability benefits or believe your VA rating decision awarded you insufficient benefits, we can also help you fight for your benefits through a compelling appeal of the initial VA decision. You can schedule a free case evaluation of your VA disability claim with a Virginia Beach veterans disability lawyer by calling (480) 498-8998 or using our contact form.
