Editorial Policy

VA Disability Hub publishes information that veterans rely on to make real decisions about real benefits. That responsibility is the reason this editorial policy exists. It describes how we research and write our content, how we choose sources, how we handle corrections, and how we keep ourselves independent from the financial pressures that distort a lot of online information about the VA disability system.

Our Standard

Every guide on this site is written to meet a single standard: a veteran with no prior knowledge of the VA disability system should be able to read it, understand the rating in question, know what evidence the VA looks for, and be able to verify any number on the page against a primary source. If a guide does not meet that standard, we rewrite it.

Sourcing Standards

We rely on primary, public-record sources wherever possible. The hierarchy we use, in descending order of authority, is:

1. The Code of Federal Regulations — particularly 38 CFR Part 3 (Adjudication) and 38 CFR Part 4 (Schedule for Rating Disabilities). Every diagnostic code, every rating percentage, and every secondary service-connection rule on this site is traceable to a CFR citation. We link to the eCFR rather than to a snapshot, so the cited language is always current.
2. The VA M21-1 Adjudication Procedures Manual for how the regulations are actually applied during claim adjudication.
3. The Federal Register for cost-of-living adjustments, rule changes, and newly added presumptive conditions.
4. VA.gov for official benefits information, application procedures, and claim processing details.
5. Board of Veterans' Appeals decisions for context on how borderline rating questions tend to be resolved.
6. Peer-reviewed medical literature and government health agencies (NIH, CDC, VA research) for clinical context on conditions and the relationships between primary and secondary conditions.

We do not source rating information from forums, social media, claims-shark marketing pages, or AI summaries of those pages. When we cannot verify something against a primary source, we either omit it or label it explicitly as our interpretation.

Author and Reviewer Bylines

Long-form content carries a byline identifying the author and, where applicable, the reviewer who checked the diagnostic code, rating percentages, and any worked math examples against the source material. The "Last updated" date on every guide reflects the most recent substantive review, not the most recent deploy of the website.

Update Cadence

Pay-rate tables are updated each December as soon as the new annual cost-of-living adjustment is published in the Federal Register, and the site reflects the new rates on their January 1 effective date. Condition guides, claims guides, ratings guides, and state guides are reviewed at least annually, and immediately whenever the VA publishes a relevant rule change. Notable past examples include the 2021 sleep apnea rating revision and the 2022 PACT Act presumptive expansions.

Corrections Policy

Accuracy is more important to us than speed. When a reader reports a possible error, we:

1. Verify the claim against the controlling primary source.
2. Fix the page if the report is correct.
3. Update the "Last updated" date so the change is visible.
4. Reply to the reader who reported it, where possible.

For substantive errors that may have misled readers — incorrect rating ranges, wrong diagnostic codes, wrong pay amounts — we add a brief correction note at the bottom of the affected page. We do not silently revise content. To report a correction, see the contact page.

Independence and Conflict of Interest

VA Disability Hub is independent. We are not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, any branch of the military, any law firm, any claims agent, any VSO, or any medical nexus letter service. We do not earn referral fees or commissions for sending veterans to paid claims services, and we do not run sponsored content. The site may display contextual advertising via Google AdSense to cover hosting and writer time; ads are clearly labeled and never embedded inside the body of a rating guide in a way that could be confused with editorial content.

If our funding model ever changes, this policy will change first.

Use of AI

We use AI tools to assist with drafting, copyediting, link checking, and accessibility review, in the same way we use spell-checkers and linters. Every page is fact-checked against primary sources by a human before it is published, and no rating percentage, diagnostic code, dollar amount, or CFR citation appears on this site without human verification. We do not publish AI-generated content as-is, and we do not accept AI-generated guest posts.

How to Reach the Editorial Team

Corrections, source suggestions, and questions about how a guide was researched should be sent to [email protected]. See the contact page for more about what we can and cannot help with.