VA Approved More Than 625,000 Upgrades to 100% Disability Ratings in 3 Years, Budget Records Show

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has raised veterans’ combined disability ratings to 100% more than 625,000 times between 2023 and 2025, including roughly 250,000 upgrades last year alone, according to a Military.com review of the department’s congressional budget submissions.

More than 2 million veterans now hold the VA’s highest disability rating, up 122% from about 941,000 in June 2021, according to VA benefits datapreviously reported by OAF Nation.

In those five years, the share of compensation recipients rated 100% went from about 18% to nearly one-third, while the total number of veterans receiving disability compensation grew about 27%.

Military.com reviewed three years of VA budget tables, pointing to a major driver of that growth. Those are veterans who were already receiving disability compensation and had their ratings increased.

Between Fiscal Years 2023 and 2025, VA recorded roughly three rating increases to 100% for every first-time compensation recipient who entered the system with that rating.

The VA and the Veteran Benefits Administration did not respond to requests for comment.

118,699 Veterans Made the Jump From 90% in a Single Year

In 2025 alone, 255,751 veterans already on the compensation rolls saw their ratings rise to 100%, according to a table in the VA’s FY27 budget submission.

Nearly half of them, or 118,699, moved up from a 90% rating.

That transition was the largest source of upgrades to 100%, and the fastest-growing among the department’s reported routes to the highest rating. It climbed from 67,837 veterans in 2023 to 94,280 in 2024, and 118,699 in 2025 —a 75% increase in two years.

Under the VA’s combined-ratings math, a veteran at 90% can reach 100% when the department grants service connection for an additional condition or finds an existing condition has worsened.

The move carries the largest payment increase between adjacent standard disability rating levels.

At the estimated 2027 rates, a veteran with no dependents would receive about $2,447 a month tax-free at 90%, and about $4,080 at 100%.

For Every Veteran Who Started at 100%, Three Were Moved Up to It

The number of existing VA disability compensation recipients whose ratings increased to 100% climbed each year, from 158,698 in 2023 to 211,218 in 2024 and 255,751 in 2025, according to tables published in three successive budget submissions.

Over the same three fiscal years, 202,086 veterans entered the disability compensation rolls with a 100% combined rating, according to the Veterans Benefits Administration’s FY25 Annual Benefits Report, amounting to roughly one new recipient for every three recorded upgrades to 100%.

Veterans entering the compensation rolls in 2025 had an average disability rating of 49.6%, compared with 65.6% among all veterans receiving disability compensation that year. VA budget records show this is a population of approximately 6.3 million.

The annual figures cannot simply be added to determine how many distinct veterans were affected over the three-year period, and the tables don’t identify what caused individual ratings to increase.

VA: Largest Jump in Average Disability in ‘Over 30 Years’

VA’s own budget language points to several engines running at once.

“The PACT Act, along with regulatory updates, the increasing number of completed claims, and the increasing number of issues per claim have contributed to rising disability ratings,” the VA wrote in its FY27 congressional budget submission.

Elsewhere in the submission, the department reported that the average disability rating among veterans receiving compensation rose from 63.1% in 2024 to 65.6% in 2025, describing it as the largest year-over-year increase in more than 30 years.

In 2025, 717,882 veterans, or 11.6% of everyone on the compensation rolls, received increases to their disability ratings, up from 636,987 in 2024.

After those increases, the average resulting rating among veterans who received increases in 2025 was 81.5%. VA’s data also show that 255,751 veterans moved from lower disability ratings to 100% that year.

When reached for comment, a VA spokesperson told Military.com that these claims result when veterans file amended claims because their disabilities worsen, new evidence of service connection becomes available, and/or new legislation or regulation allows additional compensation.

However, the department identifies several contributors to rising disability ratings overall. The published rating increase table does not specify how many upgrades to 100% resulted from the PACT Act, other regulatory changes, or particular medical conditions.

A Million More Veterans at 100% Since 2019, and It Started Pre-PACT

The trend predates the burn pit law. VA budget tables show the average monthly number of veterans with 100% disability ratings increased from 763,663 in FY 2019 to 958,897 in FY21, before the PACT Act became law.

The PACT Act, which added more than 20 presumptive conditions for toxic exposure, was signed in August 2022. VA began fully processing claims under the law on Jan. 1, 2023, after beginning expedited processing for certain terminally ill veterans the previous month.

By the end of FY25, the number of veterans receiving compensation with 100% combined disability ratings had reached 1,847,449, according to the VA’s Annual Benefits Report.

The number of new compensation recipients entering the rolls with a 100% rating also increased, from 33,692 in FY21 to 48,848 in FY22 and 73,649 in FY25.

One number that barely moved was enrollment in Individual Unemployability, a separate benefit that allows qualifying veterans whose service-connected disabilities prevent substantially gainful employment to receive compensation at the 100% rate.

The number of veterans receiving Individual Unemployability benefits increased approximately 3% between June 2021 and June 2026, according to VA statistics. Unlike a schedular 100% rating, an Individual Unemployability award does not change a veteran’s underlying combined disability rating.

Those totals alone do not show whether the increase in 100% ratings reflects the PACT Act extending benefits to newly eligible veterans, worsening service-connected conditions, greater awareness of available compensation, or a combination of factors.