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Welcome to The Veterans Disability Nexus, where we provide unique insights and expertise on medical evidence related to VA-rated disabilities. Leah Bucholz, a US Army Veteran, Physician Assistant, & former Compensation & Pension Examiner shares her knowledge related to Independent Medical Opinions often referred to as “Nexus Letters” in support of your pursuit of VA Disability every Tuesday & Wednesday at 7AM Central.
Take control of your medical evidence related to your benefits and visit https://podcast.prestigeveteranmctx.info/veteran/ for more information and to connect directly with us!
Hey, guys. It's Leah b here from Prestige Veteran Medical Consulting. I'm a US army veteran, physician assistant, and former compensation and pension examiner. So today, have Rebecca Deming from ProVet Legal on, and we're gonna discuss a super exciting topic that I know is always relevant to veterans, all veterans receiving VA disability, and that is the upcoming twenty twenty six changes for the cost of living allowance increases and what that means for veterans. So for those of you guys who don't know Rebecca, I'd like to let her introduce herself.
Leah B:She's she's been on several of our videos, and we're super excited always excited to have her here. So, Rebecca, can you tell the viewers about yourself?
Rebecca Demming:Sure. Leah, thanks for having me here. I run, ProVet Legal, which is a law firm that exclusively works on helping veterans get the disability benefits that they deserve. We work with the veterans and family members for survivor benefit claims too.
Leah B:Awesome. And they're out of Florida, but they help veterans nationwide. And I'm gonna drop a link to Rebecca's website and the, information of this video so you guys can check her out or reach out to her if if you need to as well. So just jumping straight in, can you explain to the viewers what COLA is and how it affects VA disability compensation?
Rebecca Demming:Sure. COLA stand it's an acronym. It stands for cost of living adjustment. So every year, VA, you know, the government in general, does an assessment on how much inflation there has been, and they'll change the rates of pay whether you're a GS employee receiving, a paycheck or other government benefits. So it's a cost of living adjustment, and it doesn't necessarily go into effect every year, but it's recently, it has been, just about every year.
Leah B:Okay. Awesome. So for this upcoming year, when will veterans see we're gonna talk about what the rate is, but when will veterans start to see this come into play for them for their Sure.
Rebecca Demming:VA just announced the the rate increase for the 2025, 2026. It's effective 12/01/2025, but what that means is the first paycheck that will be affected or or impacted is the one that you get either December 31 or January 1 because VA pays retroactively. So your December, January payment is for the month of December. So that's the first one that's gonna have the, increased rate on it.
Leah B:Okay. So for this upcoming increase or adjustment, what can you tell us how the or how it's determined and then what it's gonna be for 2026?
Rebecca Demming:Sure. So VA bases the increase on the, consumer price index, which is determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And they've determined that there's 2.8% increase in cost of living, across urban environments. I I don't know all of the mechanics that go into when the economists decide what the rate is. In my opinion, it seems a little bit low looking just at the price of groceries over the past year.
Rebecca Demming:But they've determined you know, they look at gas prices, grocery prices, housing prices, rent prices, all those things, and they determine what the the average, cost of living increase or rate of inflation is, across the nation. And so that's how they determine it, and they determined that it was two point eight percent for this year.
Leah B:Okay. So does that impact all veterans receiving disabilities? So, like, all ratings, whether you're 10% or a 100%, does everyone receive the same percentage increase?
Rebecca Demming:Yes. Yes. Everybody's gonna get the same percentage increase. Obviously, in terms of dollar amounts, it's gonna be a bigger dollar amount if you're getting a higher rating. So if you're receiving $2,000 a month Mhmm.
Rebecca Demming:Roughly, because I don't think there's any, disability rating that comes out to exactly two thousand. But if you're receiving $2,000 a month, 2% of that is about, $40 if I'm doing my math correctly. So you're gonna get about a a $40 a month increase. Whereas if you're receiving $200 a month, it's gonna be just a $4 increase. So, you know, the people at the lower ends, it's the same percentage, but obviously, just the way math works, the people receiving higher disability rates are gonna see more dollars in their bank account.
Leah B:So does it how does that impact benefits that we're receiving veterans are receiving for their dependents in those type of allowances.
Rebecca Demming:Those numbers should also go up by the same percentage.
Leah B:And and I assume just all VA disability. So any type of special monthly compensation just across the board, it's that same 2.8%.
Rebecca Demming:It's so, yeah, if you if you look at your last, bank deposit VA Mhmm. Assuming it's not a a wonky one, but it's one of your regular regular monthly deposits, If you just multiply that times 1.028 Mhmm. That's gonna, give you your your new rate of pay. So it's, I know not everyone kind of does the the math calculations in their heads, but, to get your current rate plus 2.8%, it's you'd take your your current amount, multiply it times 1.028 to get that 2.8% increase.
Leah B:Yeah. So, another question. So are COLA increases automatic, or do veterans have to apply for them?
Rebecca Demming:They are automatic. You do not need to apply for them. It it's always helpful to keep an eye on what's coming into your bank account. VA has some pretty good automated systems for doing the accounting, and so they don't usually have people sitting there with calculators crunching those numbers. But if you have any questions about what's coming into your account, you can always call VA.
Rebecca Demming:The typical number is +1 808271000. So if you have questions, if it doesn't look like they applied it correctly, I'd go ahead and give them a call and see if they can, give you an accounting or explain what what went wrong in in the application. But you do not have to apply for the increase. It's automatically applied to to, your monthly payments.
Leah B:So do you know and this might be a tricky question, but do COLA increases ever get challenged or changed, due to political factors, like maybe the government shutdown that's going on right now and things like that?
Rebecca Demming:I have never seen them be challenged. I will say I was a little bit, on the edge of my seat about whether it would go through with the government shutdown in a timely manner or if they would skip a year. They have been known to to skip a year and and not implement one. But once they implement it, it it's funded. So I they wouldn't go back and, reverse that that COLA.
Rebecca Demming:It is kind of interesting to look at how the COLA increases have impacted the rate of VA pay over the years. We've won some cases for clients, you know, going all the way back to the nineteen seventies, and 10% in 1970 was, like, $24 a month or something. And now a 10 a 10% rating is, over a $100 a month. So it's it's gone up significantly. Obviously, you know, you can't buy a house for $8,000 anymore.
Rebecca Demming:But, yeah, if you look at the the cost of living for those people who've been fighting a claim for for decades, When VA does the back calculations, they give you the amount based on the COLA for for each year.
Leah B:That's really interesting. And I I was just about to ask you that I was thinking about it when you were saying it that, when you're looking at retro pay for, claims that have been ongoing for significant amount of time. I was gonna ask you if they kinda take those factors into account, and it sounds like they do.
Rebecca Demming:We do. And that's why, when clients come to us, you know, I can give a rough estimate on, like, how much back pay we're expecting. But in order to do a full you know, before VAs made a decision, in order for us to do a full, free mortem on how much money we're expecting to win on a claim, you'd have to look at, you know, the rate of pay for each period of time when VA assigns an increased rating, and then you'd have to look at the COLA and how much, say, a 70% rating or a 20% rating was worth Sure. In 2024, 2023, 2022, and make all of those adjustments. So it's not a simple, well, hey.
Rebecca Demming:Can't you just, like, calculate the number of months I've been waiting and and tell me approximately how much VA might pay me? But we will do the we will verify the numbers, once we get an award. And when VA issues an award, they will break it down and, and show how much was what the monthly rate was for each period of time.
Leah B:Well, that's that is good to hear. So I know this was a kind of a quick down and dirty video on Cola, and we're we're gonna do another video I want you guys to check out about just kind of twenty twenty five year end review. We're gonna get that out before the end of the year for you guys. But before we go, Rebecca, do you have any more thoughts or comments on COLA and how it can relate to veterans? I know that, as you mentioned, just cost of living, different things like groceries, health insurance, different stuff, VA tries to sort of bridge that gap or the federal government tries to bridge that gap for veterans.
Leah B:But do you have any last thoughts on this topic that you can share?
Rebecca Demming:I I know it's important to kind of I mean, we're thinking about what the COLA was for 2025 going to 2026, but a lot of people are relying on this money for their retirement pay or to kind of get them into, their retirement years. And when I've talked to financial planners, they do wanna know, you know, is the amount that you're receiving now gonna be static for the rest of your life? And assuming you're permanently rated, you know, it's not conditions that VA might reduce or sever. Mhmm. The you can let your financial planners know that the amount should be adjusted annually to go up with the cost of living.
Rebecca Demming:So if there is a huge jump in, you know, by the time you retire or by the time you're in your eighties or or whatever, then, the cost of living should adjust for that. So it should be able to help you continue to live at the same, standard of living.
Leah B:Awesome. Well, thank you very much for, jumping on this video to sort of explain some of that, you know, COLA information for next year. And and I hope you guys enjoyed this out there, and please drop some comments or, give us any feedback or questions you might have, and we'll try to get a response to to anything you guys have. Please like and subscribe. And, Rebecca, as always, thank you for joining us.
Rebecca Demming:Awesome. Thank you, Leah. Thanks, guys.
Leah B:Yep. See you guys later.