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Kentucky VA Disability Lawyer

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Our experienced VA disability attorneys at Stone Rose Law help Kentucky veterans with free assistance in preparing, filing, and tracking your initial or supplemental VA benefits claim. 

We can also help you determine which Kentucky disabled veterans benefits you can claim in addition to any VA disability benefits you receive.

Call Stone Rose Law today at (480) 498-8998 to discuss your Kentucky VA benefits claims.

VA Disability Benefits Available to Veterans in Kentucky

Veterans who have service-related injuries that they sustained or made worse during their service are eligible for healthcare and monthly compensation benefits as part of the VA disability program.

Even if you receive a 0% VA disability rating with no monthly compensation payment, you are still eligible for other valuable veterans’ services. These include medical benefits, VA educational benefits, mental health counseling, and even VA home loan eligibility.

VA Facilities in Kentucky

The VA maintains medical centers and outpatient clinics in Kentucky, including a medical center and a vet center in Louisville and eight clinics. 

For a listing of Kentucky VA facilities, you can find VA Kentucky locations here

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How to File a VA Disability Claim in Kentucky

The quickest and easiest way to apply for VA benefits is to apply online. You can also submit your completed application to your local VA Regional Office by mail, fax, or in person. In Kentucky, the VA regional office is located in Louisville.

Regardless of which filing option you choose, you must prove three things to receive disability compensation: 

  • You qualify as an eligible veteran
  • You have a current disability
  • Your current disability is service-related

Are You an Eligible Veteran?

To qualify as a veteran eligible to receive VA benefits, your active duty service must fall within a time period the VA recognizes. You can usually establish this through your military service records, including your DD Form 214.

If you’ve received a dishonorable discharge or an other-than-honorable discharge, it may be better first to see if you can work with an experienced VA benefits attorney to improve your discharge by appealing to the VA.

Do You Have a Disability?

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 be eligible for compensation from the VA if your service-related disability makes you less than 100% able-bodied, which can be proved with medical records.  

Is Your Disability Service Connected?

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.

Although some medical conditions, known as presumed disabilities, do not require you to prove a connection to military service, most still require you to prove a service connection.

The VA rejects many disability claims because they lack sufficient evidence to create a service connection. 

One of our Kentucky VA disability attorneys at Stone Rose Law can help you gather all the documents and evidence you need to clear this potential obstacle. 

Other Ways to Meet the Service Connection Requirement

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.

Latent Conditions

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 something happened to you while serving to aggravate it. 

Secondary Source Conditions

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 later on with Type 2 Diabetes. 

These events make it possible to trace a secondary service connection by showing that the PTSD treatment caused your diabetes.

Non-Service-Connected Disabling Events

The VA will deny your claim if your injury, illness, or disabling condition results from doing something unrelated to a service-connected condition. 

What are the VA Disability Ratings?

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. More complex than a simple combination of two separate ratings, the VA calculations use a 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 achieve the disability compensation you need. 

Our VA Disability Calculator can help you estimate how much you may receive in monthly disability payments if you have multiple disabilities.

Monthly Disability Compensation for Kentucky Veterans in 2025

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 2025, the disability rating compensation for an individual veteran is as follows:

Combined VA Disability Rating2025 Monthly Compensation
10%$175.51
20%$346.95
30%$537.42
40%$774.16
50%$1,102.04
60%$1,395.93
70%$1,759.19
80%$2,044.89
90%$2,297.96
100%$3,831.30

These monthly payments increase for disabled veterans with dependents. 

Additional Monthly Compensation for Qualifying 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 the number of qualifying dependents.

A qualifying dependent can include:

  • Your spouse
  • Your dependent parent or parents
  • Your children who are under the age of 18
  • Your children between the ages of 18 and 23 who are still in a course of study

Additional Special Monthly Compensation for Qualifying Disabled Veterans

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 depending on criteria including specific disabilities like the loss of a limb or creative organ, whether you need aid and attendance from someone else, if you are completely and permanently housebound, or if you have suffered a traumatic brain injury and need regular aid and attendance as a result. 

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.

  • The L, M, and N categories also have an additional “½” rating.
  • The R and S levels each have two numbered subcategories (R-1 and R-2 and S-1 and S-2). 

Here are the 2025 SMC compensation amounts.

SMC Category2025 SMC Monthly BenefitNotes
K$136.06Paid in addition to your 100% monthly disability compensation
L$4,767.34
L-½ $5,013.79
M$5,261.24
M-½ $5,622.75
N$5,985.06
N-½ $6,337.11
O and P$6,689.22No difference in pay between these two categories
R-1$9,559.22
R-2 and T$10,964.66No difference in pay between these two categories
S$4,288.45

Dependency and Indemnity Compensation for 2025

If you are a qualifying surviving dependent of a veteran whose death was caused by that person’s military service, then you may be eligible for dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC). 

The base DIC monthly compensation amount for 2025 is $1,653.06. 

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.

A custom graphic listing disability benefits for Kentucky veterans.

Special Circumstance Benefits 

There are multiple special VA veteran benefits you might be eligible for.

For example, if you cannot find or keep substantially gainful employment, you may be able to receive additional VA benefits, like total disability, based on individual unemployability. 

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 Kentucky veterans disability attorney can help you learn which may apply to your needs.

Kentucky State Disabled Veterans Benefits

In addition to the VA’s veterans benefits, the state of Kentucky also offers its own veterans benefits.

Note that the state benefits below are not all the Kentucky benefits you can claim; we only cover those that apply to Kentucky disabled veterans.

The listing below may not be comprehensive of all possible state benefits you may qualify for. An experienced Kentucky veterans disability benefits lawyer can help you know which state veterans benefits you may be eligible to receive.

Disabled Veterans Property Tax Exemption

Totally disabled Kentucky veterans are eligible for up to a $49,100 deduction on the property tax assessed value of their homes in 2025. 

  • The disabled vet homeowner must have been receiving payments pursuant to his or her disability for the entire assessment period.
  • The homeowner must apply annually to continue to receive the exemption based upon a total disability, unless the homeowner is a veteran of the United States Armed Forces with a service-connected disability that renders the veteran totally and permanently disabled.

Education Tuition Assistance for Permanently Disabled Veterans

The spouse and any child, stepchild, or orphan aged 17 to 26 of a permanently disabled veteran receive free tuition and fees for up to 45 months upon admission to a state educational institution.

Resident Disabled Veterans Hunting & Fishing License

A Kentucky resident veteran with at least a 50% service-connected disability can receive a senior/disabled hunting and fishing license. This license is valid for all activities covered under a sport fishing license, sport hunting license, or state permit for deer, turkey, trout, waterfowl, or migratory shore or upland game birds.

Kentucky State Veterans Employment Preference

Disabled veterans who were honorably discharged receive a preference when applying for open jobs at state, county, and local governments. 

Disabled veterans can get 10 points added to their test scores for state jobs. Some spouses and surviving spouses may also be eligible.

Kentucky State Park Vehicle Permits

Kentucky resident veterans who are permanently and totally disabled pay no overnight accommodation fees at any Kentucky state park.

  • Eligible disabled veterans can enjoy up to three overnight stays per calendar year, with a maximum of three nights per visit. 
  • Reservations made from Memorial Day through Labor Day and during October must fall within a 5-day window, from Sunday through Thursday. For stays outside of this period, availability permitting, accommodations can be booked for any day of the week. 
  • The free lodging (whether it’s a room, cottage, or campsite) applies solely to the Veteran’s own occupancy, and proof of disability is required at the time of check-in.

Prepare Your VA Disability Benefits Claim With a Stone Rose Law VA Disability Lawyer

At Stone Rose Law, our Kentucky 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 get your claims file quickly.

Once we access your claims file, we review everything in it. This means checking all your service treatment records, your VA records, any previous claims for benefits, and any rating decisions.

We thoroughly scour your records to look for:

  • Any improper claim denials
  • Any instances of under-rating by the VA
  • Any claims the VA may have missed
  • Any potential new claims you may have
  • Any issues ripe for appeal

After reviewing your file and creating a plan for your initial claim, we will discuss our findings and recommendations with you.

If you have never applied for VA benefits before, we will assist you at no cost in preparing and filing a claim. We 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 VA 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 with a Kentucky veterans VA disability lawyer by calling (480) 498-8998 or contacting us online.