If you are a veteran living in Virginia, and you need assistance when applying for veterans disability benefits for the first time, need to make a supplemental claim, or need to appeal a denied benefits claim by Veterans Affairs (VA), then Stone Rose Law can help you.
Call us at (480) 498-8998 to speak with one of our Virginia VA disability attorneys in a free case evaluation.
The VA offers multiple ways for veterans in Virginia with disabilities to file for VA disability claims benefits.
The easiest way is to file online. You can also submit your completed application to the Regional Office by mail, fax, or in person.
Under VA law, when you submit your benefits claim, you must prove three things to receive disability compensation:
We will look more closely at each of these requirements next.
The VA considers multiple factors to determine if you are eligible for VA benefits.
Active duty service members usually only need to prove active military service. However, there are a few automatic disqualifiers. These include servicemembers who received a dishonorable discharge or, in some cases, an other-than-honorable discharge.
If you need help upgrading your military discharge, an experienced Stone Rose VA lawyer can help you appeal to your Discharge Review Board.
For VA benefits, a disability is a current physical or mental condition caused or worsened by your active duty military service. A medical professional must diagnose you with a current disability.
VA benefits compensate if your service-connected disability incapacitates you. Ordinarily, the best way to show you have a disability is to provide medical records and military records as official documentation.
To qualify for disability compensation, you must prove a service connection or that one or more disabling events occurred during your military service. Your service medical records, along with post-service medical treatment records, will be crucial in supporting your claim for a direct service connection.
Note that some medical conditions, such as Agent Orange exposure or Gulf War Syndrome, are considered presumed disabilities and do not require proof of military service connection.
Some veterans’ disability claims are denied due to lack of evidence. One of our Virginia VA disability attorneys at Stone Rose Law can help you gather all the documentation you need to clear this potential obstacle to your benefits claim approval.
Below are other medical conditions that the VA will consider based on indirect service connections.
A latent medical condition is a condition you had before entering the military but was not disabling at that time. If a latent condition worsens after you leave the service, the VA will investigate to determine whether something happened to you while serving to aggravate it.
Another way you can receive a service-connected disability is if it comes from a separate, direct service-connected disability.
For example, your doctor might diagnose you as having post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) based on a traumatic event you experienced in service. If your PTSD treatment includes drugs that have led you to gain weight and result in Type 2 diabetes, you may still be able to trace a secondary service connection by showing that the PTSD treatment caused your diabetes.
Another factor the VA will evaluate is whether your disability relates to your military service. The VA may deny your claim if your injury, illness, or disabling condition comes from doing something unrelated to a service-connected condition, like engaging in illegal behavior.
If the VA approves your initial or additional disability compensation claim, it will assign you a VA disability rating. Your VA disability rating will range from 0% (non-compensable) to 100% (total disability).
The VA calculates your disability based on the number of disabling conditions you are experiencing (most veterans suffer from more than one) and the severity of your symptoms. In some cases, if your disability results in your individual unemployability, this can also qualify you for total disability compensation.
One of our Stone Rose Law VA lawyers can help prove the extent of your disability when you’re filing for veterans benefits. Our VA Disability Calculator can help you estimate how much you may receive in monthly disability payments if you have multiple disabilities.
The VA provides monthly disability compensation based on your single or combined disability rating. The higher your disability rating, the more you can receive.
The VA also matches your disability to a benefit amount based on the current year’s disability rates. After the third calendar quarter of every year, the VA adjusts disability compensation rates based on the cost-of-living adjustment that the Social Security Administration applies for Social Security compensation.
These are payments the VA makes directly to you. How much you can receive in monthly benefits will depend on your combined disability rating. The higher your disability rating, the more you can receive.
The VA matches your disability to a benefit amount that is based on the rates for the current year.
For 2025, the disability rating compensation for an individual veteran is as follows:
| Your Combined VA Disability Rating | What You Can Expect to Receive in 2025 |
| 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% | $2,297.96z |
| 100% | $3,831.30 |
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%, then 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 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.
Here are the 2025 SMC compensation amounts.
| Your SMC Category | Your 2025 SMC Monthly Benefit | Notes |
| K | $136.06 | Paid 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 | $6,689.22 | No difference in pay between these two categories |
| R-1 | $9,559.22 | |
| R-2 and T | $10,964.66 | No difference in pay between these two categories |
| S | $4,288.45 |
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, or 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.
There are many unique VA benefits you might be eligible for. For example, depending on your needs, you may receive additional VA benefits like compensation if you cannot find or keep substantially gainful employment or compensation for costs if you need hospital or convalescent care.
In other situations, the VA can provide allowances for transportation and clothing.
These are only some of the special benefits the VA offers. A Stone Rose Virginia Veterans’ disability attorney can help you learn which ones may apply to you.
The VA supports veterans with more than just compensation. Even if your disability rating is 0%, you can still benefit from other Veterans’ health services through the VA healthcare system.
VA medical benefits include:
If you have suffered an injury or disabling medical condition while serving in the military, you may qualify for disability benefits that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA) offers. Depending on how severe your service-connected disabilities are, you could receive up to 100% of total disability-based compensation.
In addition to monthly compensation, the VA makes many other kinds of benefits available to disabled veterans. Even if you receive a 0% disability rating with no monthly compensation payment, you may still be eligible for other valuable veterans’ services like medical benefits, VA educational benefits, mental health counseling, and even VA home loan eligibility.
In Virginia, the VA Regional Office for benefits is located in Roanoke. The VA operates medical centers in Richmond, Hampton, and Salem.
A VA outpatient clinic provides medical services to enrolled Veterans, Servicemembers, and their families. These services focus on preventive care, diagnosis, and treatment of various health conditions, as well as the management of chronic diseases.
Vet centers provide counseling, outreach, and referral services to combat veterans and their families. Services include individual and group counseling in areas such as post-traumatic stress, alcohol and drug assessment, and suicide prevention referrals. All services at these VA facilities are free and confidential.
In Virginia, the VA has outpatient clinics in Bristol and Winchester, plus 16 community-based outpatient clinics and six vet centers.
You can find a complete listing of VA locations in Virginia here.
In addition to VA disability benefits, the state of Virginia provides its own benefits to disabled veterans.
Veterans with a Department of Veterans Affairs 100% permanent and total disability are exempt from property taxes on their homes. Surviving spouses may also be eligible.
Disabled veterans seeking state employment can get a 10% addition to their test scores.
Virginia offers a free lifetime hunting and fishing license, as well as a discounted saltwater license for Virginia resident veterans who have permanent and service-connected disabilities. If you are at least 70% disabled, then you can get discounted hunting and freshwater fishing licenses.
If you are a veteran with a 100% VA disability, then you are eligible for free admission and parking and admission for yourself and anyone you need to assist you at Virginia state parks. This pass also covers boat launch and horse trailer parking, and a 50% discount on camping, swimming, shelters, and equipment rental.
You do not need to be a Virginia resident to qualify for this benefit.
The Military Survivors and Dependents Program provides educational benefits to spouses and children of veterans who became at least 90% disabled as a result of military service in an armed conflict.
This program can pay for tuition and fees at any state-supported college or university in Virginia for up to 36 months. Children are eligible between the ages of 16 and 29.
For more information on health, disability compensation, education, and employment benefits generally available to assist veterans in Virginia, see the following:
At Stone Rose Law, our Virginia VA disability lawyers systematically approach your specific VA claim. After consultation with an accredited VA disability benefits attorney, our attorneys will obtain a copy of your VA claims file to review and look for:
If you have never applied for VA benefits before, we will assist you in preparing and filing your benefits claim at no cost. We will also monitor your claim, help you prepare for compensation and pension (C&P) examinations, and advise you of any VA decisions as part of this free service.
The VA may initially deny a claim if the VA examiner that is considering your claim concludes the evidence is insufficient to establish a service connection or if the VA makes a mistake internally during initial claims processing.
Some of the most common problems we see in VA benefits claims include:
There are three ways to challenge a VA disability claim denial:
Appealing to the Board of Veterans Affairs comes with its own set of choices and options. These include:
To present a convincing appeal to a denied veterans disability claim, you will need a thorough understanding of VA regulations and procedures, how the VA applies them, and the time limit you must work within after the VA decision.
This is what a Stone Rose Law VA disability claim denial lawyer will do for you.
We recommend you appeal a claim denial with the extensive experience of a Stone Rose Law VA claims appeal attorney fighting at your side. One of our veterans’ appeals attorneys can guide you through the VA appeals process until the matter is resolved and you receive the compensation and other benefits you deserve.
Our law firm is accredited by the Department of Veterans Affairs as representatives for veterans with VA benefit claims and is admitted to practice VA disability law before the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
If we win your appeal, we will charge a reasonable, one-time contingency fee based on your VA award. If we are not successful, you owe us nothing.
Going it alone when the VA has denied your benefits claim is never easy, but it is not something you should fear. This is especially true if you have legal help from a VA disability advocate.
Our skilled team of veterans’ disability lawyers has a proven track record in providing legal representation to Virginia veterans with disability claims for their service-connected disabilities. We employ VA claim lawyers with years of experience in veterans disability law and proven track records of successfully representing veteran clients in VA disability cases.
Contact us today to discuss how our law firm and veterans lawyers can help you with your VA initial claim, supplemental claim, or appeal, so you receive the maximum benefits you qualify for.Schedule a free VA disability case evaluation with one of our disability lawyers in Virginia at (480) 498-8998, or contact us online.
