The number of veterans holding the Department of Veterans Affairs' highest disability rating has jumped nearly 90% in four years, according to Newsmax.
Nearly 1.85 million veterans had a 100% combined disability rating as of Sept. 30, 2025, compared with 972,893 four years earlier, according to VA records reviewed by Military.com. The VA's fiscal 2025 Annual Benefits Report puts the exact figure at 1,847,449, an increase of 89.9%.
That growth far outpaced the 21.3% rise in the total number of veterans receiving disability compensation. Nearly three in 10 veterans who receive compensation now hold the department's top rating.
VA records show that existing recipients were raised to a 100% rating more than 625,000 times from fiscal 2023 through fiscal 2025. That is roughly three times the number of veterans who entered the system already rated at the maximum.
Nearly half of the 255,751 increases to 100% in fiscal 2025 went to veterans who had previously been rated at 90%. The number of new recipients entering the rolls at 100% also rose, from 33,692 in fiscal 2021 to 73,649 in fiscal 2025, Military.com reported.
The VA has attributed the growth partly to the PACT Act's expansion of toxic exposure benefits, regulatory changes, record claims processing and more medical issues decided within each claim. The department has not said how much of the increase each factor accounts for.
The rise also predates the PACT Act, which was signed in August 2022. VA budget tables show the average monthly number of veterans rated 100% grew from 763,663 in fiscal 2019 to 958,897 in fiscal 2021, according to Military.com.
The trend has drawn scrutiny over oversight of taxpayer-funded benefits, and federal investigators have documented individual fraud cases. However, investigators have not established how much of the growth, if any, is due to fraudulent claims.
In one case cited in a VA inspector general fraud bulletin, a West Virginia veteran pleaded guilty to collecting $354,813 after falsely claiming service-related post-traumatic stress disorder. In Missouri, another veteran obtained $164,363 using forged discharge documents and fabricated medical records, including a false diagnosis of ALS.
A January 2024 inspector general audit found that an estimated 69% of claims in one group supported by publicly available disability benefits questionnaires had at least one potential fraud indicator. Investigators stressed that the indicators alone did not establish fraud.
The VA also identified about $2.4 billion in improper or unverifiable disability compensation payments, a figure that includes administrative errors and underpayments. VA Inspector General Cheryl Mason told senators in October 2025 that suspected disability compensation fraud made up about 3.7% of her office's active fraud investigations.
A 100% rating reflects the severity of service-connected conditions under the VA's rating system and does not necessarily mean a veteran cannot work, Military.com noted. Enrollment in Individual Unemployability, a separate benefit for veterans whose disabilities prevent them from holding a job, rose only about 3% between June 2021 and June 2026.
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