Knowledge Base · Free for veterans
VA Disability COLA by Year: How the Raise Is Set
Your VA raise is set by Social Security's COLA, announced each October and paid starting December - here is the whole mechanism and the year-by-year record.
The facts
- 01The Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act requires VA compensation, DIC, and pension rates to rise every year by the SAME percentage as Social Security benefits (38 U.S.C. 5312) - no separate congressional vote needed.
- 02The 2026 COLA is 2.8%, effective December 1, 2025 - it lifted the 10% rate from $175.51 to $180.42/mo and the 100% rate from $3,831.30 to $3,938.58/mo (veteran alone).
- 03Recent COLA record: 2022 = 5.9%, 2023 = 8.7% (post-pandemic inflation spike), 2024 = 3.2%, 2025 = 2.5%, 2026 = 2.8%.
- 04VA rounds each published rate DOWN to the next lower whole dollar after applying the COLA factor (38 U.S.C. 5312(c)(1)) - the dropped cents do not carry forward.
- 05The raise lands in the payment you receive in early January (VA pays one month in arrears) - the December 1 effective date is not the deposit date.
Sources
StewardWise is free for veterans and their families and always will be. Educational information only — not legal, tax, financial, or VA-benefits advice; figures verified against the cited sources for 2026.
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