About
Built by a veteran. Sourced from the regulation.
VA Disability Max is an independent educational resource. It exists so veterans can walk into a conversation with their VSO, attorney, or physician already knowing what the regulation actually says — and what their claim is worth if they file it right.
Mission
We teach the regulation. That’s it. Every guide on this site is grounded in 38 CFR Part 4 (the VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities), with the exact CFR vocabulary the rater is required to use, paraphrased only where it helps a veteran understand what they’re reading. We don’t prepare claims, we don’t give personal legal or medical advice, and we don’t promise any outcome.
Our position is simple: a veteran who understands the rating schedule before they file ends up with a better-supported claim, a better-organized C&P exam, and a better-informed conversation with whoever helps them — whether that’s a VA-accredited VSO, a claims agent, or an attorney.
Built by a veteran, for veterans
I’m Jesse — 12 years in the Army as a CH-47 Chinook Flight Engineer (MOS 15U), with about 3,000 flight hours. Now 100% service-connected.
I built VA Disability Max because the VA disability system is designed to be confusing. I watched too many of my brothers and sisters leave benefits on the table they earned — not because they didn’t deserve them, but because nobody explained the system in a way that actually made sense.
109 condition guides. 13 free tools. Every one of them written in plain English with the exact CFR vocabulary raters look for. No claim sharks. No $5,000 fees. No paywall on the guides — ever.
The Pro tier covers what it costs to run the tools that automate the parts you’d otherwise do on paper. The condition guides stay free forever, because that’s the resource I wish I’d had.
Use this site. Share it. And if it helps you get rated where you should be — that’s why I built it.
— Jesse, Founder
How this site is different
CFR-sourced, not paraphrased to death
Every rating tier, every threshold, every diagnostic code is cross-checked against 38 CFR Part 4. Where the regulation uses specific vocabulary ("prostrating attack," "considerable impairment of health," "regulation of activities"), we surface it — because the C&P examiner has to write those exact words for the tier to be granted.
2026 rates, refreshed annually
Every dollar figure on the site reflects the FY2026 pay tables effective Dec 1, 2025. When the December 2026 COLA hits, the rate constants update in one file and the entire catalog picks up the new numbers. No stale figures lingering in old guides.
Catalog free forever. No sketchy stuff.
Every condition guide, every rate calculation, every CFR citation is free — and will stay that way. Some advanced tools may eventually move to a low-cost Pro tier to cover what they cost to run; the catalog itself never will.
What we won’t do: sell your data, run ads, send unsolicited referrals, or push you toward representation you didn’t ask for. When we link to outside services — including VA-accredited law firms — we tell you it’s a paid partnership. You see the disclosure; you decide.
What we won’t do
These limits aren’t marketing copy — they’re the line between an educational resource and the things only an accredited representative is allowed to do for you. We will not:
- Prepare, file, or submit your VA claim
- Give you personalized legal or medical advice about your specific case
- Promise or estimate a rating outcome for any individual
- Substitute for an examination by a licensed physician
- Substitute for representation by a VA-accredited VSO, claims agent, or attorney
The VA decides every claim on its own facts. Nothing on this site is a guarantee of any specific rating or benefit. If you need someone to actually file or argue your claim, find an accredited representative at va.gov/ogc/apps/accreditation.
Who this is for
Veterans filing an initial disability claim
Learn the rating schedule before your C&P so you can describe symptoms in CFR vocabulary, not vague terms.
Veterans filing a supplemental or HLR
Diagnose why the prior decision came in low and identify the missing evidence.
Veterans pursuing TDIU
Understand schedular vs extraschedular eligibility and what your work history needs to show.
Family members helping a veteran
Translate the dense CFR language into something you can use to support the claim.
VSOs and accredited reps cross-referencing
Quick diagnostic-code lookup with the rating tiers, evidence checklist, and common secondaries already laid out.
Veterans dealing with denials or under-ratings
See the exact tier criteria you may have been rated under and identify what evidence could push you up.
How the site is maintained
- Condition guides are cross-checked against the current 38 CFR Part 4 schedule. When the CFR changes — like the May 2024 digestive schedule update or the ongoing musculoskeletal revisions — the affected guides get audited and flagged with effective-date notes.
- Compensation rates refresh annually after the December COLA. All dollar figures read from a single constants file so the update is one edit, not 250 finds-and-replaces.
- A build-time guard catches the worst category of drift — flagship pages advertising rating tiers that don’t exist in the CFR — before any wrong content reaches a veteran.
- Corrections are welcomed. If you spot a tier that’s wrong, a CFR citation that’s stale, or a dollar amount that doesn’t match the current pay tables, please email us using the contact below — with the URL of the page and what you saw.
Independence
VA Disability Max is independent and not endorsed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. “VA Disability Max” is a private educational project — not a government program, not a law firm, not a claims-preparation service.
Support the work
If this site saved you time on your claim — or got you a rating you would have otherwise missed — consider buying me a coffee. It keeps the guides free, the hosting paid, and the rates updated when the next COLA hits.
VA Disability Max is run by one person, not a nonprofit. Donations go directly to hosting, domain, email, and the time it takes to keep the catalog CFR-current.
Not affiliated with the VA. Donations cover hosting and content maintenance and are not tax-deductible (VA Disability Max is not a 501(c)(3)).
Contact & feedback
Corrections, broken links, missing guides, or feedback on any page: support@vadisabilitymax.com. The faster a CFR error gets reported, the faster it gets fixed for the next veteran reading the same page.