VA disability and survivor checks rose 2.8% to keep up with prices

If you get VA disability compensation, your monthly payment went up 2.8% on Dec. 1, 2025. The same raise applied to the extra money paid for dependents, the yearly clothing allowance for some disabled veterans, and dependency and indemnity compensation for eligible surviving spouses and children. The raise matches the cost-of-living increase Social Security recipients got. A veteran rated 10% now gets $180.42 a month, and a veteran rated 100% with no dependents gets $3,938.58, about $107 more than before.

You don’t have to apply. The VA raised the rates for everyone already receiving these benefits. In fiscal 2025, that was about 6.3 million veterans and nearly 550,000 survivors.

Unlike Social Security, veterans’ benefits don’t rise with inflation on their own. Congress has to pass a law every year. Rep. Morgan Luttrell, a Texas Republican, and Rep. Morgan McGarvey, a Kentucky Democrat, introduced the House version in March 2025. Sen. Jerry Moran, the Republican chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, introduced the Senate bill with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the committee’s top Democrat, and 21 cosponsors from both parties. The Senate passed it by unanimous consent on Nov. 9, 2025, and the House passed it by voice vote on Nov. 17. President Donald Trump signed it on Nov. 25, 2025.