Advice from the Advocate
The 5, 10, 20 & 55 Year Rules
When your rating becomes protected from reduction
The VA can reduce ratings, but a set of protection rules limits that power based on how long you have held a rating and your age. Know your milestones. The VA will not remind you when a protection kicks in, and it will not mention one when it proposes a cut. Your part is to know the date each rating took effect, track how long you have held it, and respond in writing right away if a proposed reduction letter arrives.
Ratings Are Not Always Forever, Except When They Are
The VA retains the authority to reduce ratings when a condition improves. But Congress and the VA's own regulations have created a series of protection milestones that progressively limit the VA's power to take back what it has granted. Understanding these milestones affects how you respond to proposed reductions, and whether you have to respond at all.
The Protection Milestones
5-Year Rule, §3.344 / §3.951
A rating that has been continuously in effect for five or more years is considered "stabilized" and cannot be reduced unless the VA can demonstrate sustained improvement under the ordinary conditions of daily life, not just a single exam showing better numbers. The improvement must be shown through multiple examinations over time, and the VA must consider the entire record, not just the latest snapshot.
10-Year Rule, §3.957
Service connection that has been in effect for 10 or more years cannot be severed except upon a showing of fraud. The VA can still reduce the rating percentage, but it cannot take away the underlying service connection itself. This means the condition remains recognized, even at 0%, and can be re-evaluated for an increase.
20-Year Rule, §3.952
A rating held continuously for 20 or more years cannot be reduced below the lowest rating it has held during that period, except upon a showing of fraud. If your knee has been rated at 10% for 22 years, it cannot be reduced below 10% regardless of what an examination shows.
55-Year Rule (Age Protection)
Veterans over the age of 55 are generally not scheduled for routine reexaminations. While the VA retains the theoretical authority to order one, the practical effect is that ratings held past age 55 are rarely disturbed. This is not a statutory guarantee, but it is the VA's consistent practice.
When the VA Proposes a Reduction, Your Rights
Before reducing any rating, the VA must comply with the due-process requirements of §3.105(e):
The VA must issue a proposed reduction letter explaining the basis for the reduction
You have 60 days to submit additional evidence opposing the reduction
You have the right to request a predetermination hearing within 30 days
The reduction cannot take effect for at least 60 days from the date of the final decision
If the VA fails to follow these procedures, the reduction is void and can be reversed on appeal
Strategic Implications
If you are approaching a protection milestone, think twice before triggering a new C&P exam by filing for an increase on that condition. Sometimes the strategic move is to let the clock run and secure the protection before seeking a higher rating. This is a case-specific decision that depends on your overall rating picture and financial situation.
The Advocate's Take
The VA counts on you not knowing your rating is protected. Know the milestones, and a reduction notice becomes a fight you can win. We have defeated proposed reductions by holding the VA to its own rules, and those rules strongly favor the veteran who knows them.
Where the VA Gets This Wrong
The most common error is proposing a reduction of a stabilized rating (5+ years) based on a single improved exam, without demonstrating sustained improvement under the ordinary conditions of daily life. If the VA cites one exam to take away a rating you have held for years, that is a fightable error.
Building a The 5, 10, 20 & 55 Year Rules Claim That Wins
Every claim stands on three legs. Knock one out and the claim falls over, no matter how bad your symptoms are. Before you file, look at your file and find all three. If one is missing, that is the piece to build first. The VA will not build it for you, and filing without it usually just buys you a denial letter and lost time.
01A current diagnosis
A doctor has to say you have it, now, in writing. Not "reports symptoms of", a diagnosis. Without this leg, nothing else in the file matters.
02A link to your service
An event, an injury, an exposure, or an already service-connected condition. Service records, unit records, buddy statements, and your own account all count as evidence.
03A nexus that ties the two together
A medical opinion stating it is at least as likely as not that your service caused or aggravated the condition. That phrase is a legal standard: 50 percent or better. It is the leg most denials break.
Document the problem before you file
• Keep a dated symptom log for at least 30 days. Frequency, severity, and what it stopped you from doing.
• Get statements from people who see it, a spouse, a coworker, a battle buddy. Lay evidence is legal evidence.
• Pull your private treatment records. The VA only has to help; it does not have to go find everything.
• Write down what you have stopped doing. Lost work, lost sleep, lost activities. That is what impairment looks like on paper.
Your Rights in This Process
Most veterans walk into this system without knowing the rules the VA itself has to follow. That is how claims get denied for missing evidence the VA was supposed to help you find, and how exams get done by the wrong clinician. These six rights are written into federal regulation. Know them before you file, and make the VA honor every one of them when it decides your claim.
It costs nothing to file
Filing a VA claim is free. Accredited representatives may only charge for work on an appeal after an initial decision, and those fees are capped by 38 CFR §14.636.
The VA has a Duty to Assist you
Under 38 CFR §3.159 the VA must help you get the evidence it needs, and it must tell you what is missing before it denies you for missing it.
You can ask for a different examiner
You may request a trauma-informed clinician, or a clinician of a specific gender, for a C&P examination. Ask before the exam is scheduled.
You can claim every condition you have
There is no limit and no penalty. Primary conditions, secondary conditions, and conditions made worse by service all get filed.
You can appeal and be re-evaluated
A denial is not the end. You may submit new evidence, request a higher-level review, appeal to the Board, and ask for re-evaluation when your condition worsens.
You must be considered for TDIU
If your service-connected conditions keep you from holding substantially gainful employment, you may be paid at the 100 percent rate without a 100 percent rating.
When You Are Ready to File
Talk to an accredited representative before you file. It costs nothing to ask, and the order you file in changes what the VA is allowed to award you. Albert L. Thombs Jr. is VA-Accredited Claims Agent #45147. A short conversation now can save you a year spent waiting in the wrong review lane.
Your part starts at the kitchen table. Pull your DD-214, your rating decision if you have one, and the names of every doctor who treats you today. Under 38 CFR 3.159 the VA has to help you gather records, but it can only chase the records you tell it about. Leave a doctor off the 21-4142 and that treatment may never reach your file.
The application itself
This is the form that opens a disability compensation claim. List every condition you are claiming, and name the secondary conditions explicitly.
Release for private records
Authorises the VA to request records from your private doctors. Without it, treatment outside the VA may never reach your file.
Lay or buddy statement
The official form for your own statement and for statements from people who witnessed the event or the change in you.
Keep Reading
One page never tells the whole story of a claim. The VA rates every condition on its own evidence, its own exam and its own diagnostic code, and the pieces connect in ways most veterans never see until a decision letter lands. These are the pages that pick up where this one stops. Read them before you file, not after a denial, because the cheapest fix in this process is the mistake you never make.
Myths About VA Disability
Bad information costs veterans real money. These are the myths we hear most, and the regulation that disproves each one.
Read more
Advice From the Advocate
Straight talk from an accredited agent and disabled veteran who has seen every way a claim can be won or lost.
Read more
AI & Your VA Claim
The VA is increasingly using automation to process claims. Understanding what a machine can and cannot decide protects you from a system optimized for speed, not accuracy.
Read more
The Persistent, Patient Veteran Wins
The VA system is slow, adversarial, and built to wear you down. The veterans who win treat the claim like a long campaign, persistent on the details, patient with the timeline, and relentless about follow-through.
Read more
