Protected VA Disability Ratings: The 5, 10, and 20-Year Rules Explained
One of the most common worries veterans have after finally getting a rating is whether the VA can take it away. The short answer is that the VA can reduce a rating in some situations — but the longer your rating has been in place, the harder the VA has to work to do it.
You'll hear these protections called the "5-year rule," the "10-year rule," and the "20-year rule." Those are nicknames veterans use, not official names in the regulations. Each one comes from a different section of 38 CFR, and each protects something different. Knowing which is which matters, because a lot of bad information gets passed around on this topic.
Can the VA Reduce a Disability Rating?
Yes, the VA can reduce a disability rating, but only under specific conditions and only after following a required notice process. The VA cannot simply lower a rating because a reviewer disagrees with the original decision.
Under 38 CFR 3.327, the VA requests a reexamination "whenever VA determines there is a need to verify either the continued existence or the current severity of a disability." If that exam shows real, lasting improvement, a reduction becomes possible. If it doesn't, the rating should stay.
What Is the VA 5-Year Rule?
The "5-year rule" comes from 38 CFR 3.344, and it protects ratings that have been held at the same level for five years or more from being reduced on the basis of one exam.
The regulation limits these protections to "ratings which have continued for long periods at the same level (5 years or more)." Once a rating hits that mark, the VA has to meet a higher standard:
The reexamination must be "full and complete, including all special examinations indicated." The regulation is explicit that exams "less full and complete than those on which payments were authorized... will not be used as a basis of reduction."
The VA must show sustained improvement, not a single good day. For conditions that come and go, 38 CFR 3.344 says a rating "will not be reduced on any one examination, except in those instances where all the evidence of record clearly warrants the conclusion that sustained improvement has been demonstrated."
If the evidence is genuinely unclear, the VA is directed to continue the current rating and schedule another look later.
Note what this rule does not do. It doesn't make a rating permanent at five years. It raises the evidentiary bar the VA has to clear.
What Is the VA 10-Year Rule?
The "10-year rule" comes from 38 CFR 3.957, and it protects service connection — not your percentage. The regulation states that service connection "which has been in effect for 10 or more years will not be severed" except in two situations:
The original grant was based on fraud, or
Military records show the person did not have the required service or character of discharge.
This is a strong protection, and it's also the one veterans most often misunderstand. After 10 years, the VA generally cannot take away the fact that your condition is service connected. It can still evaluate the severity of that condition and, if the evidence supports it, reduce the percentage — potentially even to 0%. Service connection stays; the rating number is a separate question.
The 10-year clock runs from the effective date of service connection to the effective date of any decision trying to sever it.
What Is the VA 20-Year Rule?
The "20-year rule" comes from 38 CFR 3.951(b), and it's the strongest of the three. The regulation says a disability "continuously rated at or above any evaluation of disability for 20 or more years for compensation purposes... will not be reduced to less than such evaluation except upon a showing that such rating was based on fraud."
In practical terms: if you've been at 40% or higher for 20 straight years, the VA cannot drop you below 40% unless it shows fraud. Note the wording — "at or above." The protected floor is the lowest level you've continuously held for those 20 years, not your current rating.
The 20 years is measured from the effective date of the evaluation to the effective date of the proposed reduction.
Does Age Affect Whether the VA Reexamines You?
Yes. Under 38 CFR 3.327(b)(2), the VA generally will not schedule routine future examinations "in cases of veterans over 55 years of age, except under unusual circumstances."
That same section lists other situations where periodic reexaminations aren't scheduled:
The disability is established as static
Findings have persisted without material improvement for 5 years or more
The disability is permanent in character with no likelihood of improvement
The rating is the scheduled minimum for that condition
A change wouldn't affect the combined evaluation
Important distinction: this is a rule about scheduling exams, not a rule that forbids reductions. Fewer exams means fewer reduction opportunities, but it isn't a guarantee.
What Process Must the VA Follow Before Reducing a Rating?
The VA cannot reduce a rating without advance written notice. 38 CFR 3.105(e) requires the VA to prepare a proposal, notify you at your address of record with the reasons for the proposed reduction, and give you 60 days to submit additional evidence while your payments continue at the current level.
You also have a hearing right. Under 38 CFR 3.105(i), the notice must tell you that you can request a predetermination hearing if the VA receives your request within 30 days from the date of the notice. If you request it in time, the regulation says benefit payments "shall be continued at the previously established level" until a final determination is made.
If the reduction goes through, it takes effect the last day of the month in which a 60-day period from the notice of final action expires.
Two dates, two different jobs. Thirty days for the hearing request. Sixty days for evidence. Missing the 30-day window doesn't end your case, but it costs you the hearing.
Common Mistakes Veterans Make With Rating Reductions
Treating the proposal letter as final. A proposed reduction is not a decision. It's an invitation to respond, and the response window is the whole point.
Waiting past 30 days to request a hearing. The 60-day evidence period gets remembered; the 30-day hearing request gets missed.
Skipping a scheduled reexamination. Under 38 CFR 3.655, if you're already receiving benefits and don't report, the VA sends a pretermination notice and gives you 60 days to agree to be examined or submit evidence of continued entitlement. If there's no response, payment "shall be discontinued or reduced." Missing a rescheduled exam is "cause for immediate discontinuance or reduction of payment." Good cause exists for real reasons — the regulation lists illness, hospitalization, or a death in the immediate family — but you have to raise it.
Assuming "permanent and total" means untouchable. Permanence affects whether the VA schedules routine exams. It isn't a separate protection rule with its own statute.
Not knowing which protection actually applies. The 10-year rule guards service connection. The 20-year rule guards a percentage floor. Confusing the two leads veterans to think a reduction is impossible when it isn't — or that they're defenseless when they aren't.
Knowing Where You Stand Before a Letter Arrives
Most veterans learn about these rules the week a proposed reduction shows up in the mail. That's the hardest time to learn them.
The better time is now — knowing the effective dates on your ratings, which conditions have been at the same level for how long, whether any of them are marked static or permanent, and what the VA would have to prove to change any of it. That's information you can pull from your own decision letters today.
Patriot Path Solutions provides VA disability education and strategic information to help veterans better understand their benefit options. PPS does not file claims, represent veterans before the VA, or provide legal or medical advice, and no one can guarantee a specific rating outcome.
If you're not sure which of these protections apply to your situation or what your decision letters actually say, Patriot Path Solutions can help you understand your VA disability options and what questions to ask next. Book a free VA disability strategy consultation to get started.
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