Military Checklist

The VA is proposing to cut your rating

What the four protection rules actually say, the procedural rights that attach to a proposed reduction, and the two deadlines inside the notice that most people miss because nobody selling representation has any reason to point them out.

14 min read

Questions this article answers

  • Can the VA reduce my disability rating?
  • The VA is proposing to reduce my rating, what do I do?
  • Can the VA reduce my rating after 10 years?
  • Can the VA reduce my rating after age 55?
  • What is a predetermination hearing?

A letter arrives saying the VA proposes to reduce your evaluation. It is frightening, it is written in the passive voice, and the two things you most need to know are deadlines buried in the middle of it.

This page exists because of what happens when you search for help. Every result on the first page is a law firm or a claims agent — the procedural rules below are legally precise, publicly available, and presented almost exclusively by parties who are paid if you hire them. You may well want representation. You should not have to buy it to find out what the rule is.

First: a proposal is not a reduction

The notice you have is a proposed reduction under 38 CFR 3.105(e). Nothing has changed yet, and two rights attach immediately.

What goes wrong

Reading the proposal as a decision, feeling there is nothing to be done, and waiting to see what the next letter says.

What right looks like

Diarising both dates from the notice — thirty days for the hearing request, sixty for evidence — and deciding deliberately which of the two you want, then sending something inside the window even if it is only a request for more time.

WhyThese are the only points at which the reduction can be contested BEFORE it happens. Afterwards you are appealing an existing decision, which is slower, and in the meantime you are being paid at the lower rate. Silence during the window is read as no objection.

Still fixableRecoverable — a reduction can still be appealed after it takes effect. But you will have spent months at the reduced rate to get back to where a timely response might have kept you.

The four protections, which are four different rules

Almost every summary merges these into one vague reassurance. They protect different things, start at different times, and only one of them protects the rating itself.

What is protected, and when
Protection depends on WHAT has been continuous, and for HOW LONG
5 years — stabilisation
A rating continued at the same level for five years or more may not be reduced on a single examination. The evidence must show sustained material improvement under the ordinary conditions of life. 38 CFR 3.344.
10 years — service connection
Service connection itself may not be severed after ten years, except for fraud. This protects the CONNECTION, not the percentage — the rating can still be reduced to a lower one, or to zero. 38 CFR 3.957.
20 years — the rating
A rating in effect for twenty years or more may not be reduced below its lowest level during that period, except for fraud. This is the one that protects the number. 38 CFR 3.951(b).
Age 55 — examinations
VA policy generally does not schedule routine future examinations for veterans over 55, absent unusual circumstances. It is a scheduling practice, not a statutory bar on reduction.

Does not includeAny protection against a reduction you asked for, or one following a rating you obtained by fraud · Protection of a temporary or convalescent rating, which is expected to end · Any suggestion that these are automatic — the protection exists, but it has to be raised

38 CFR 3.344, 3.951 and 3.957

Worked exampleWorking out which protections apply

Given

  • Condition rated 40% since March 200422 years at that level
  • Increased to 60% in June 20197 years at the higher level
  • Proposal nowReduce to 20%

Working

  1. Twenty-year protection on the lowest level held

    2026 − 2004 = 22 years continuously service connected and ratedThe rating may not go below 40%

    The protection is of the LOWEST evaluation in effect during the period, not of the current one.

  2. Five-year stabilisation on the 60%

    2026 − 2019 = 7 years at 60%Applies — a single examination is not enough to cut it

  3. Result

    Proposal of 20% against a floor of 40%The proposed reduction is barred as drafted

    A reduction from 60% to 40% might still be argued; below 40% is not available.

The proposal to 20% cannot stand, because twenty years of continuous rating protects the 40% floor. That is an argument made from a date, not from medical evidence — and it is one that can be made in a letter.

This figure does not account forthe exact dates on your rating decisions, which are what the twenty years is measured from; whether the rating was continuous or lapsed; whether any period was a temporary evaluation; and whether fraud is alleged, which removes these protections entirely.

What actually helps inside the window

The date argument first. It is objective, it is in your own decision letters, and it does not depend on anybody’s opinion of your condition. Check the effective dates before you do anything else.

Then the examination. Reductions frequently follow a re-examination. If that examination was short, did not cover the symptoms that justified the rating, or was conducted by someone who did not review the file, say so specifically — what was not asked, what was not examined, what was not read.

Then the standard. For a stabilised rating the question is not whether you had a good day. It is whether the evidence shows sustained material improvement under the ordinary conditions of life. Improvement in a clinic that does not survive a working week is not the standard the regulation sets.

If it has already happened

You are appealing a decision now, and there are three routes: a supplemental claim with new and relevant evidence, a higher-level review by a more senior adjudicator on the same evidence, or an appeal to the Board. Which fits depends on whether you have new evidence or think the existing evidence was misjudged.

If the reduction was made without the procedural steps above — no proposal, or an effective date that did not allow the required intervals — that is a distinct argument from the medical one, and a stronger one. A reduction made without due process can be challenged on that ground alone.

What this page is not

It is not advice about your case, and it is not a substitute for a representative. An accredited Veterans Service Organisation representative costs nothing and can act for you; accredited agents and attorneys charge, usually as a share of back pay. All three are recorded in the VA’s accreditation search.

What this page is: the rules, with their citations, so that you can read them yourself before you decide whether to hire anyone — and so the thirty-day deadline in your letter does not pass while you are reading advertisements.

Related subjects

Sources

The authorities themselves, not summaries of them. Every figure in this domain changes, and these are where to confirm one before you act on it.

Estimates and explanation only. Not financial, legal, tax or VA advice. Rates in this domain change annually; confirm any figure against its source before acting.