Some protections for a VA rating start only after a set number of years. Enter each condition's effective date and this page works out when the 5 year, 10 year, 20 year and age 55 dates arrive, so you know which ones apply now and which are still ahead.
Educational only, not legal advice and not a VA determination. Everything is worked out on your device and nothing you enter is saved. VA decides every case.
Upload a rating decision and Ready214 pulls out each condition, its percentage and its effective date. The file is read on your device and never uploaded. Add the lines you want to the clock, and check each one against the letter first.
Use the effective date from your decision letter, which is often earlier than the date the letter is dated. If a condition has had more than one rating level, add each level with its own effective date. The earliest one stands in for the date service connection began. Nothing you type here is saved or sent anywhere.
Enter a rating and its effective date above, and the dates appear here.
After a rating has stayed at the same level for 5 years, VA must meet a stricter test before lowering it (38 CFR 3.344(a) and (b)). It must review the whole record and find improvement that is sustained and likely to last. If doubt remains, the rating continues. This is a higher bar, not a ban. A rating can still be lowered on sustained improvement, and 3.344(c) excludes a condition that has not stabilized and is likely to improve.
After service connection has been in effect for 10 years, VA cannot sever it except for fraud, or when military records clearly show you lacked the required service or discharge character (38 U.S.C. 1159, 38 CFR 3.957). Severing a grant is different from lowering a percentage. The 10 years does not stop VA from reducing a condition that has improved.
When a disability has been continuously rated at or above a level for 20 years, VA cannot rate it lower unless the rating was based on fraud (38 U.S.C. 110, 38 CFR 3.951(b)). The floor is the level held for the full 20 years, not a higher one reached later, and time spent below a level breaks its count.
For service-connected conditions, 38 CFR 3.327(b)(2) says no periodic future exams are scheduled for a veteran over 55, except under unusual circumstances. The text says over 55, so this page counts from the day after your 55th birthday. Under 3.327(a), VA can still order an exam at any time to make sure a disability is accurately rated. This ends routine call-ups, not reexamination or reduction.
When a lower rating would cut your payment, 38 CFR 3.105(e) requires a written proposal with the facts and reasons, sent to your address of record, and 60 days to submit evidence that payments should continue. Under 3.105(i), you can request a predetermination hearing within 30 days of the notice date, and a timely request keeps payments at the current level until a final decision. The reduction takes effect on the last day of the month in which 60 days from the final notice run out.
Each date is an anniversary of an effective date, not of the decision letter's date. The regulations count the 20 year and 10 year periods to the effective date of the reduction or severance, and Brown v. Brown applies the same count to the 5 years, so a protection covers a reduction that takes effect on or after its date. A February 29 start counts to March 1 in a year with no leap day. Your earliest rating stands in for the date service connection began.
A knee condition is rated 10% effective June 1, 2005, then 30% effective March 15, 2015. Service connection began June 1, 2005, so the 10 year date is June 1, 2015. The increase restarted the 5 year count, giving March 15, 2020. The 10% floor begins June 1, 2025, 20 years after 2005, and the 30% floor begins March 15, 2035. Until then VA could still lower the rating below 30% if the record supported it.
It does not decide whether a protection applies to your claim. Exceptions, temporary ratings, and total ratings (38 CFR 3.343) have their own rules, and VA makes the call. If VA proposes a reduction, read the notice, note its deadlines, and talk to an accredited representative. Ready214 is not affiliated with VA or DoD and is not a claims representative. See what to do after your rating and the combined rating calculator.
Checked against the eCFR (through September 30, 2026) and the U.S. Code in October 2026.