Can the VA Reduce or Take Your Rating? The 5, 10, and 20-Year Rules

One of the most common fears among rated veterans is that the VA can wake up one day and take the rating away. The honest answer: the VA can propose to reduce a rating, but it cannot do it quietly, quickly, or on a whim. Federal regulation builds in escalating protections the longer you hold a rating, and a defined procedure the VA has to follow before a single dollar changes. This guide walks through exactly what those protections are, with the regulation behind each one.

A note before we start: this guide is information only. It explains the rules that govern rating reductions. It does not file anything for you or advise you on a specific claim. If you receive a proposed-reduction notice, a VA-accredited Veterans Service Officer (VSO) can help you respond at no cost. You can find one through the VA Office of General Counsel accreditation search.

First, the default: most ratings are not protected on day one

When a rating is new and the condition is the kind that can improve, the VA can schedule a future re-examination (a "routine future exam," or RFE) and adjust the rating based on what it finds. That is the baseline. The protections below are the exceptions that kick in over time or because of the nature of the disability, and they are strong.

The single most important thing to understand: a reduction is never automatic. Even when no special protection applies, the VA must follow the formal procedure in 38 CFR 3.105(e) before reducing your compensation. We cover that procedure at the end, because it applies to every case.

The 5-year rule: stabilized ratings (38 CFR 3.344)

Once a rating has been held continuously at the same level for 5 years or more, 38 CFR 3.344 raises the bar substantially. The VA cannot reduce it on the strength of one ordinary exam. It has to clear three hurdles:

1. Material improvement that will last. The rating agency must find it "reasonably certain that the improvement will be maintained under the ordinary conditions of life." A single good day, or improvement seen only in a clinical setting, is not enough.
2. Sustained improvement, not a blip. For conditions "subject to temporary or episodic improvement," the rating "will not be reduced on any one examination" unless all the evidence "clearly warrants the conclusion that sustained improvement has been demonstrated." This is aimed squarely at conditions like many mental-health and neurological diagnoses that fluctuate.
3. An exam at least as thorough as the original. "Examinations less full and complete than those on which payments were authorized or continued will not be used as a basis of reduction." A quick records review cannot undo a rating that was granted on a full examination.

The 5 years is measured from the effective date of the rating to the date the proposed reduction would take effect. The protection applies to ratings that "have continued for long periods at the same level," and explicitly does not apply to disabilities that "have not become stabilized and are likely to improve."

The 10-year rule: service connection locks in (38 CFR 3.957)

This is the protection people most often misunderstand, so read it carefully. Once service connection for a disability has been in effect for 10 years or more, 38 CFR 3.957 says it "will not be severed except upon a showing that the original grant was based on fraud" or that military records clearly show the person did not have the requisite service or character of discharge.

What this protects: the service-connected status itself. After 10 years, the VA cannot decide your condition was never related to service and zero it out.

What this does not protect: the percentage. A 70% rating that has been service-connected for 12 years can still be reduced to, say, 30% if the medical evidence supports it (subject to the 5-year rule above and the procedure below). The 10-year rule guarantees the condition stays service-connected, not that it stays at any particular number.

The only two exits are fraud in the original grant, or a clear records showing you lacked qualifying service or the required character of discharge. Absent one of those, the service connection is permanent after a decade.

The 20-year rule: a permanent floor (38 CFR 3.951)

The strongest of the time-based protections. Under 38 CFR 3.951(b), a disability "continuously rated at or above any evaluation of disability for 20 or more years" cannot be reduced below that level "except upon a showing that such rating was based on fraud."

In plain terms: once you have held a rating for 20 years, the lowest level it held during that span becomes a permanent floor. If you were rated 50% the entire time, the VA cannot drop you below 50% for the rest of your life, fraud aside. The number can go up, it just cannot go back under the floor.

The 20-year period runs from the effective date to the date a reduction would take effect, and fraud is the sole exception. A related provision, 38 CFR 3.951(a), also protects you from a reduction caused merely by the VA revising its rating schedule, unless medical evidence shows your disability actually improved.

Cutting a 100% rating takes even more (38 CFR 3.343)

Total ratings get their own heightened standard. Under 38 CFR 3.343(a), a 100% rating cannot be reduced on one exam unless that exam shows "material improvement in physical or mental condition." And the regulation is explicit that the improvement has to be real-world: it must reflect the ability to function "under the ordinary conditions of life, i.e., while working or actively seeking work," not improvement produced "in the protected environment of a hospital or domiciliary" or "by following a regimen which precludes work."

There is a specific sub-rule for TDIU (Total Disability based on Individual Unemployability). Under 38 CFR 3.343(c), the VA cannot reduce a TDIU rating just because you took a job. The veteran has to actually maintain employment "for a period of 12 consecutive months," and actual employability must be shown by "clear and convincing evidence." Trying out a job and having it not work out does not cost you the rating. For how TDIU pays at the 100% rate without a 100% schedular rating, see our TDIU guide.

The over-55 and static-disability exam protections (38 CFR 3.327)

A reduction usually starts with a re-examination. So one of the most practical protections is the rule on when the VA will not even schedule one. Contrary to a common belief that this is buried in an internal manual, it is in the regulation itself, 38 CFR 3.327(b)(2). The VA generally will not request routine future exams:

• When the disability is static (established as not expected to change).
• When the findings "have persisted without material improvement for a period of 5 years or more."
• When the disability "is permanent in character and of such nature that there is no likelihood of improvement."
• In cases of veterans over 55 years of age, except under unusual circumstances.
• When the rating is at the prescribed scheduled minimum, or when reducing one condition would not change the combined evaluation.

The VA's adjudication manual (M21-1) implements the over-55 rule operationally, instructing raters generally not to schedule a future exam that would occur once the veteran is 55 or older, absent unusual circumstances. The manual is internal guidance, but the protection it carries out is written into the CFR.

Permanent and Total (P&T): why these ratings sit still (38 CFR 3.340)

A rating is "permanent and total" when it is both 100% disabling and not expected to improve. The regulatory definition of permanence, 38 CFR 3.340(b), is that "permanence of total disability will be taken to exist when such impairment is reasonably certain to continue throughout the life of the disabled person." The VA does not require absolute certainty, only that improvement is not realistically expected on the medical evidence.

Because a permanent disability by definition has "no likelihood of improvement," it falls inside the 3.327(b)(2) carve-out above, so the VA does not schedule routine re-exams for P&T veterans. The practical marker is on your decision letter: language indicating "no future examinations are scheduled" is the sign your rating is being treated as permanent. P&T also unlocks a set of downstream benefits for your family, including CHAMPVA family health coverage and survivors' education benefits.

The procedure: what has to happen before a dollar changes (38 CFR 3.105(e))

Even when none of the protections above fully block a reduction, the VA cannot just lower your check. 38 CFR 3.105(e) requires a defined sequence:

1. A proposed rating, not a final one. The VA first prepares "a rating proposing the reduction or discontinuance" that sets "forth all material facts and reasons."
2. Written notice with reasons. You are notified at your address of record "of the contemplated action and furnished detailed reasons therefor."
3. 60 days to respond with evidence. You get "60 days for the presentation of additional evidence to show that compensation payments should be continued at their present level."
4. 30 days to request a hearing. If you ask within 30 days of the notice, you are entitled to a predetermination hearing before any reduction is finalized.
5. A delayed effective date. If no new evidence comes in, the reduction takes effect "the last day of the month in which a 60-day period from the date of notice" of the final action expires. In practice that pushes the actual reduction out by months from the first notice.

The takeaway: a proposed reduction is the start of a process you can participate in, not a done deal. The window to submit evidence and request a hearing is exactly when a VA-accredited VSO is most useful.

What this guide is not

This guide is informational. It explains the regulations that protect a disability rating and the procedure the VA must follow to change one. It does not file claims, respond to a proposed reduction for you, or advise you on the specifics of your case.

If you have received a proposed-reduction notice, the clock matters: note the 60-day evidence window and the 30-day hearing-request window from the date on the letter. A VA-accredited Veterans Service Officer can help you respond at no cost (find one here).

To see what a given rating is worth in real dollars, including how a reduction or increase would change your monthly compensation, run your numbers through our disability calculator.