The VA rates depression and anxiety on a scale from 0% to 100%, in increments of 0, 10, 30, 50, 70, and 100 percent. There is no single fixed rating for these conditions. Your rating depends on how severely your symptoms affect your ability to work and maintain relationships. Most veterans with depression or anxiety receive ratings between 30% and 70%.
One important rule: the VA does not rate depression and anxiety separately. If you have both conditions, or PTSD alongside them, the VA evaluates all your mental health symptoms together and assigns one combined mental health rating. This is called the anti-pyramiding rule.
What Each Rating Level Means
The VA uses the same rating criteria for all mental health conditions, including major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and persistent depressive disorder. What matters is not the specific diagnosis but how much your symptoms interfere with your daily life, your job, and your relationships.
0%: You have a formal diagnosis, but your symptoms don’t interfere with work or social functioning and don’t require continuous medication. This rating establishes service connection (which matters for future claims) but pays no monthly compensation.
10%: Similar to 0% in the official language. In practice, this rating is assigned when symptoms are present but barely affect functioning. It pays $180.42 per month as of December 2025.
30%: Your symptoms are mild or come and go. They reduce your work efficiency only during periods of significant stress, or they’re controlled by continuous medication. This is a common starting rating for veterans whose depression or anxiety is managed but still noticeable.
50%: You’re generally functioning okay, handling self-care and normal conversation, but you have intermittent periods where you can’t perform work tasks. Typical symptoms at this level include depressed mood, weekly or less frequent panic attacks, chronic sleep problems, and mild memory loss like forgetting names or recent events.
70%: Your symptoms cause deficiencies in most areas of life: work, family relationships, judgment, thinking, and mood. This level reflects reduced reliability and serious difficulty maintaining employment and personal connections. Monthly compensation at 70% is $1,808.45 for a single veteran with no dependents.
100%: Total occupational and social impairment. Symptoms at this level include gross impairment in thought processes or communication, persistent danger of hurting yourself or others, inability to perform basic self-care, and complete inability to work. This pays $3,938.58 per month for a single veteran.
How the VA Decides Your Rating
Your rating is determined primarily during a Compensation and Pension (C&P) exam. A VA-contracted mental health professional will evaluate you and check one of these summary boxes on the Disability Benefits Questionnaire:
- No mental disorder diagnosis
- Symptoms not severe enough to interfere with functioning
- Mild or transient symptoms affecting work only during significant stress
- Occasional decrease in work efficiency with intermittent inability to perform tasks
- Reduced reliability and productivity
- Deficiencies in most areas (work, school, family, judgment, thinking, mood)
- Total occupational and social impairment
Each of these corresponds directly to a rating level. The examiner’s checkbox selection carries enormous weight in the VA’s decision, though raters also review your treatment records, personal statements, and any buddy statements you submit. Diagnoses must be established using DSM-5 criteria, though the rating schedule itself still uses older evaluation standards that focus on occupational and social impairment rather than specific diagnostic checklists.
Service Connection for Depression and Anxiety
Before the VA assigns a rating percentage, you need to establish that your depression or anxiety is connected to your military service. There are two main paths.
Direct service connection means your condition started during or was caused by your time in service. You’ll need evidence showing the condition began during active duty or is linked to something that happened while you served.
Secondary service connection is the more common route for depression and anxiety. If a physical condition that’s already service-connected causes or worsens your mental health, you can claim depression or anxiety as a secondary condition. Chronic pain conditions are particularly strong foundations for secondary claims. Veterans have successfully connected depression to conditions like degenerative joint disease, knee injuries requiring surgery, and other chronic pain disabilities. The logic is straightforward: living with constant pain or physical limitation takes a measurable toll on mental health.
Compensation Rates by Percentage
Monthly tax-free payments as of December 2025 for a single veteran with no dependents:
- 10%: $180.42
- 20%: $356.66
- 70%: $1,808.45
- 80%: $2,102.15
- 90%: $2,362.30
- 100%: $3,938.58
Rates increase if you have a spouse, children, or dependent parents. At 30% and above, the VA adds dependent allowances on top of the base rate.
If Your Rating Is Too Low
If you receive a rating that doesn’t reflect how your symptoms actually affect your life, you can file for an increase. The most effective evidence for a higher mental health rating includes consistent treatment records showing worsening symptoms, statements from family or coworkers describing how your condition affects daily functioning, and documentation of missed work or relationship difficulties.
Veterans whose depression or anxiety prevents them from holding steady employment may also qualify for Total Disability based on Individual Unemployability (TDIU). This benefit pays at the 100% rate even if your actual rating is lower. To qualify, you need at least one service-connected disability rated at 60% or more, or a combined rating of 70% with at least one condition at 40%. The key requirement is that your service-connected conditions prevent you from maintaining substantially gainful employment.
When Your Benefits Start
The effective date, which determines how far back your compensation is paid, depends on when you file. For a condition caused by military service, the effective date is the later of two dates: when the VA received your claim or when the condition first appeared. If you file within one year of leaving active service, your effective date can go back to the day after separation, which can mean a significant lump sum in back pay.
Filing more than a year after separation typically means your effective date is the date the VA received your claim. This is why filing sooner, even if you’re unsure about your rating, is almost always better than waiting. You can always request an increase later, but you can’t recover benefits for years you didn’t have a claim on file.