VA Tinnitus Rating

If you're experiencing persistent ringing, buzzing, or hissing in your ears after military service, you're not alone. Tinnitus is one of the most common service-connected conditions reported by veterans.

Tinnitus, though invisible, can affect many other aspects of your health, such as sleep, balance, and emotional well-being, to name a few. Many veterans assume the condition isn't serious enough to warrant benefits, but the VA recognizes it and may assign compensation.

In this guide, you'll discover how the VA defines tinnitus, how the rating is determined, what documentation you'll need to prove that you are eligible for a tinnitus VA rating, and—if you already have a tinnitus rating—how to increase it.

Whether you're filing for the first time or filing again after being denied, knowing how to approach your tinnitus VA claim can make all the difference.

Tinnitus (pronounced TI-nuh-tuhs) is often described as a phantom sound—something only you can hear. It might be a high-pitched tone, a low hum, or intermittent whooshing in one or both ears. Tinnitus can also cause a sensation of fullness in the ears. For veterans, it's frequently caused by exposure to loud noises, such as gunfire, aircraft engines, machinery, or explosions. It can also stem from head injuries or as a side effect of medications taken during service.

The tinnitus VA disability rating is unique in that it doesn't vary by severity. Unlike other conditions where the VA assigns percentages based on how disabling the symptoms are, tinnitus is generally rated at 10% (no less, no more), regardless of whether you have it in one ear or both.

Even though tinnitus is subjective and often hard to "prove," the VA relies on specific evidence and documentation when making a decision about your tinnitus rating. This includes service records, medical opinions, and your own description of how and when the condition began.

You can request a Higher Level Review, where a more senior VA adjudicator examines your claim again to see if errors were made in the initial review.

You can also file a supplemental claim. Unlike filing an appeal, a supplemental claim does not start your case all over again. Rather, the VA reviews your former claim in light of new evidence. This new evidence might include more medical documentation, a nexus letter, or a better personal statement. A supplemental claim with the right documentation can do a lot to help you get approval for your VA tinnitus claim.

While the VA rarely gives higher than a 10% rating for tinnitus, there's another path to increasing your disability compensation for tinnitus, and that's through secondary conditions.

Secondary conditions are impairments that are caused or aggravated by a primary service-connected condition. Tinnitus commonly leads to other conditions, like headaches, sleep disruptions, and mental health disorders. When you get rated for tinnitus and then claim these conditions secondary to your tinnitus diagnosis, you could elevate your compensation considerably.

For example, many veterans have been granted:

If you are filing a claim for a health condition secondary to tinnitus, make sure to include a compelling personal statement and nexus letter to bolster your claim.

There are proposed changes under review for the VA's tinnitus disability rating protocol. If these changes pass, the VA would get rid of the standalone 10% rating for tinnitus. This means that tinnitus won't be compensated as a distinct condition, only in conjunction with an underlying condition like hearing loss or vertigo.

That's why it's important to quickly submit your Intent to File (VA Form 21-0966). Your intent to file locks in a date, while still allowing you a year to submit your full claim. It is expected that if your Intent to File is in before the changes take place, you'll be grandfathered in under the old protocol.

The VA claims process can seem extremely hard to navigate, but VA Claims Academy has cracked the code. We offer one-on-one consultations to help you approach your claim in the right way and set you up with online courses to get you smart on the VA process.

We also provide you with tried-and-true templates for personal statements, nexus letters, etc. Why start from scratch when you can use drag-and-drop templates that have been proven to work with the VA?

In short, we teach you how to speak the language the VA understands. Veterans often leave benefits on the table—not because their conditions don't qualify, but because they don't know how to provide the evidence, documentation, and wording the VA wants to see. VA Claims Academy exists to close that gap and give you a structured path to the tinnitus VA disability rating you are legally entitled to.