If you ask VA for a higher rating, VA can, in principle, lower it instead. Most of the time that is not a problem. You can check your risk before you file.

The short version

• Asking for an increase makes VA look at that condition again, as it is today.
• Your rating can go up, stay the same, or go down.
• VA looks only at the condition you claim, not your whole file.
• VA has rules that make it hard to lower a rating. VA must also warn you first.
• Check the rating rules, your records, and the VA math before you file.
• If VA decided the condition in the last year and got it wrong, you may need an appeal, not an increase.

The question comes up in almost every consultation, usually in the same words. "If I ask for more, can they take away what I have?"

I am not going to soften this. Yes, in principle they can. When you file for an increase, you ask VA to look at that condition again. VA looks at where you are today. It does not look at where you were when VA gave you the rating.

Most of the time that is fine. Sometimes it is not. The veterans who get hurt are the ones who filed without knowing which case they were in. So let us go through it honestly.

What filing for an increase really does

An increase claim tells VA that a service-connected condition has gotten worse. Service-connected means VA agrees the condition is linked to your military service.

VA then looks at how bad the condition is now. In practice, VA pulls your recent treatment records. Usually, VA also sets up a C&P exam. C&P stands for Compensation and Pension. It is the medical exam VA uses to check your claim.

That exam is a snapshot of you now. The rater is the VA worker who decides your rating. The rater compares the snapshot to the rules in the rating schedule. That is VA's list of rules for rating each condition. Then the rater gives whatever percent the findings support.

There are three possible results:

• The rating goes up.
• The rating stays the same.
• The rating goes down.

Filing for one condition does not open your whole file. It opens only that condition. Say you claim your knee got worse. VA is not checking your tinnitus again just because you asked about the knee. Tinnitus is ringing in the ears.

The protections that exist

This is not a coin flip. The system is not designed to punish veterans for asking. Several protections stand between an exam result and an actual cut to your rating.

VA cannot cut your rating based on one bad snapshot

To lower a rating you already have, VA needs more than "today's exam looked better." VA has to show two things:

• You really improved in your ability to function in normal daily life and work.
• The improvement lasts. It is not just a good day at a clinic.

One exam that catches you on a decent morning is not supposed to support a cut on its own.

Ratings you have had a long time are protected

VA rules give more protection to ratings that have been in place a long time. The longer a percent has been in effect without a break, the harder it is for VA to change it. At a certain point, the protection is close to total, unless there was fraud.

The details depend on how long you have had your rating. So check this against your own effective dates before you file anything. The effective date is the date VA starts paying from.

Total ratings have their own protections

Some ratings are paid at the total level, including through unemployability. Unemployability means VA pays you at the total rate because your service-connected conditions keep you from working. VA must follow extra steps before it may lower these ratings.

Nothing happens without warning

VA does not just lower your check. First, VA has to propose the cut. It has to tell you in writing what evidence it is using. Then it has to give you time to do these things before the change takes effect:

• Respond to the proposal.
• Send evidence.
• Ask for a hearing.

If you ever get a proposal letter, see it as a chance to respond. It is not a final ruling.

When the risk is real

Be honest with yourself. Do any of these describe you?

• Your condition really got better. Surgery worked. The medicine is holding. The therapy did what it was supposed to do.
• Your current rating was generous compared to what your records really show, and you know it.
• Your claim is based on a flare-up, not on a lasting change in your usual level.
• You have not been treated for the condition in years. So nothing recent is in your file except what the examiner writes down.

That last one matters a lot. If your file has gone quiet, the exam becomes the only current evidence. Then a single appointment carries huge weight.

Do your homework before you file

Take these three steps, in this order.

Step 1: Look up the rating rules

Find the diagnostic code you are rated under. The diagnostic code is the number VA uses for your condition. Read what the next higher level really requires. Do not go by what feels worse. Go by what the rating schedule says.

Step 2: Get your records

Get your treatment notes from the last year or two. Read them the way a rater would. If your condition getting worse is not written down anywhere, the claim is not ready.

What you can do: Go get treated. Describe your symptoms to your provider honestly and correctly. Let the record build for a few months first.

Step 3: Do the VA math

VA combines ratings under 38 CFR 4.25. VA does not just add your ratings together. It combines each rating against the ability you have left.

So going from 30 percent to 50 percent on one condition may raise your combined rating much less than you expect. Sometimes it does not raise it at all. Run the number before you decide the effort is worth it.

Increase or appeal? They are not the same

Did VA decide this condition within the last year? Do you believe the decision was wrong when VA made it? Then that is an appeal, not an increase.

You have one year from a decision to use one of these:

• Higher-Level Review (VA Form 20-0996): A senior reviewer takes a fresh look. No new evidence is allowed.
• Supplemental Claim (VA Form 20-0995): You must send new and relevant evidence.
• Board Appeal (VA Form 10182): A Veterans Law Judge reviews your case.

Filing a Supplemental Claim within that year also protects your original effective date.

Filing a new increase claim instead of appealing can cost you back pay. That is because the effective date usually attaches to the new claim, not the old one. It is the same condition and the same paperwork, but very different money.

Ask the right question

Sometimes the real problem is not that a percent is too low. The real problem is that the condition has taken away your ability to earn a living.

In that case, look at unemployability under 38 CFR 4.16 instead of chasing another ten points. This benefit is often called TDIU. It pays at the 100 percent rate.

Under the standard rating rules (called a "schedular basis"), TDIU is available if you have either:

• One disability rated at 60 percent or more, or
• A combined rating of 70 percent or more, with at least one disability at 40 percent or more.

Take a veteran with a combined 70 percent rating. For that veteran, TDIU is the difference between $1,808.45 and $3,938.58 a month. And the percents under it do not change at all.

The goal was never a bigger number. The goal is the benefit that matches what the condition has really done to your life. File when the record supports the request, not when your frustration peaks.

The Jacks Law Group represents veterans nationwide and worldwide from offices in Henderson and Las Vegas, Nevada. David R. Jacks, Jr. is a VA-accredited attorney. He is also a 100% permanently and totally disabled U.S. Army veteran. If you want help with a claim or an appeal, call to schedule a consultation.

Disclaimer: This blog is general information only. It is not legal advice. Reading it does not, by itself, make us your lawyers. Every VA claim depends on its own facts. Rates, rating rules, and program rules change over time. For advice about your own situation, talk with a VA-accredited attorney.