A service-connected stroke is rated 100 percent for six months under diagnostic codes 8007, 8008, and 8009 in 38 CFR 4.124a. After those six months, VA re-examines you and rates the residuals that remain, with a minimum of 10 percent as long as there are ascertainable residuals. The 10 percent floor is not the ceiling. Each lasting effect of the stroke, weakness in an arm or leg, facial droop, speech loss, memory and executive-function damage, seizures, gets rated under its own diagnostic code, and those ratings combine. Veterans with significant deficits routinely end up far above 10 percent.
The Three Stroke Codes: 8007, 8008, and 8009
38 CFR 4.124a groups cerebrovascular events under three codes in the "Organic Diseases of the Central Nervous System" section:
| Code | Condition | Rating |
|---|
| 8007 | Brain, vessels, embolism of | See below |
| 8008 | Brain, vessels, thrombosis of | See below |
| 8009 | Brain, vessels, hemorrhage from | See below |
The regulation gives all three the same instruction:
Rate the vascular conditions under Codes 8007 through 8009, for 6 months: 100. Rate residuals, thereafter, minimum: 10.
DC 8007 covers embolic stroke, 8008 covers thrombotic stroke, and 8009 covers hemorrhagic stroke. In practice VA raters and decision letters often use 8009 as shorthand for stroke generally, which is why "DC 8009" is the code most veterans see referenced. The rating mechanism is identical across all three.
VA published a proposed rule on November 12, 2024 that would rewrite the neurological section of the rating schedule and consolidate the stroke codes. As of the current edition of 38 CFR Part 4, that rule is not in effect. The 8007 through 8009 structure described here is the law VA is applying to claims decided in 2026.
What the Six-Month 100 Percent Period Actually Means
This is where competitor pages get sloppy, so be precise about it.
The 100 percent evaluation is schedular, not a temporary total under 38 CFR 4.29 (hospitalization) or 4.30 (convalescence). It runs for six months from the stroke. It applies when the stroke itself is service connected, either directly, secondarily, or presumptively.
Three consequences follow:
- You do not have to prove severity during those six months. The 100 percent is automatic once the cerebrovascular event is established and service connected.
- VA schedules a re-examination at the end of the period. That exam sets your ongoing rating.
- Stepping down from 100 percent is a reduction, and reduction rules apply. Under 38 CFR 3.105(e), VA must first issue a rating proposing the reduction, notify you at your address of record with detailed reasons, and give you 60 days to submit evidence that payments should continue at the current level. The reduction then takes effect the last day of the month in which a 60-day period from notice of the final rating expires.
If you are still 100 percent disabled by the residuals at month six, say so with evidence. The end of the automatic period is not the end of the possibility of a total rating. It just shifts the basis from the code to your actual deficits.
The 10 Percent Minimum, and Its One Condition
After six months, the floor is 10 percent. The regulation attaches a requirement to it. The note following codes 8000 through 8025 reads:
It is required for the minimum ratings for residuals under diagnostic codes 8000-8025, that there be ascertainable residuals.
The same note goes on to say that residuals not capable of objective verification, specifically naming headaches, dizziness, and fatigability, must be approached on the basis of the diagnosis recorded, and that subjective residuals will be accepted when consistent with the disease and not more likely attributable to other disease or no disease.
Read that carefully, because it cuts both ways. A veteran with a fully recovered stroke and a clean neurological exam can drop to 0 percent. A veteran with headaches and dizziness but no imaging findings still qualifies for the 10 percent minimum, because the regulation explicitly accepts subjective residuals consistent with the diagnosis.
The note ends with an instruction aimed at raters that is worth quoting to VA in your own claim:
It is of exceptional importance that when ratings in excess of the prescribed minimum ratings are assigned, the diagnostic codes utilized as bases of evaluation be cited, in addition to the codes identifying the diagnoses.
That sentence is the entire mechanism of this page. VA is directed to name the specific codes it used for your residuals. If your decision letter says "10 percent, DC 8009" and nothing else while you have a dragging leg and slurred speech, the rating did not do the work the regulation requires.
How Each Residual Gets Routed to Its Own Code
The opening paragraph of 38 CFR 4.124a sets the rule:
With partial loss of use of one or more extremities from neurological lesions, rate by comparison with the mild, moderate, severe, or complete paralysis of peripheral nerves.
VA does this with hyphenated codes. The regulation demonstrates the format at DC 8046 (cerebral arteriosclerosis), which instructs that purely neurological disabilities such as hemiplegia and cranial nerve paralysis be rated under the codes dealing with those specific disabilities, with citation of a hyphenated code such as 8046-8207. Stroke residuals follow the same pattern, so you will see entries like 8009-8520 or 8009-8513 in a rating decision.
Here is where common stroke residuals land.
Arm and hand weakness (hemiparesis, upper extremity)
| Code | Nerve group | Complete (major/minor) | Severe | Moderate | Mild |
|---|
| 8513 | All radicular groups | 90 / 80 | 70 / 60 | 40 / 30 | 20 / 20 |
| 8510 | Upper radicular group | 70 / 60 | 50 / 40 | 40 / 30 | 20 / 20 |
| 8512 | Lower radicular group | 70 / 60 | 50 / 40 | 40 / 30 | 20 / 20 |
| 8515 | Median nerve | 70 / 60 | 50 / 40 | 30 / 20 | 10 / 10 |
| 8516 | Ulnar nerve | 60 / 50 | 40 / 30 | 30 / 20 | 10 / 10 |
"Major" is your dominant side, "minor" the non-dominant side. Dense hemiparesis of a whole arm is usually rated under 8513, all radicular groups, which reaches 90 percent for complete paralysis of the dominant arm.
Leg weakness (lower extremity)
| Code | Nerve | Complete | Severe | Moderately severe | Moderate | Mild |
|---|
| 8520 | Sciatic | 80 | 60 | 40 | 20 | 10 |
| 8521 | Common peroneal | 40 | 30 | n/a | 20 | 10 |
| 8524 | Tibial (internal popliteal) | 40 | 30 | n/a | 20 | 10 |
| 8526 | Femoral (anterior crural) | 40 | 30 | n/a | 20 | 10 |
Post-stroke foot drop is frequently rated under 8521. Broad leg weakness goes under 8520.
Two rules govern how these are applied. The regulation states that when involvement is wholly sensory, the rating should be for the mild, or at most the moderate degree. And peripheral nerve ratings are for unilateral involvement; when bilateral, they combine with the bilateral factor under 38 CFR 4.26, which adds 10 percent of the combined value of the paired-limb ratings before further combining.
Facial droop
Facial weakness is a seventh cranial nerve problem, DC 8207: complete paralysis 30 percent, incomplete severe 20 percent, incomplete moderate 10 percent, dependent on relative loss of innervation of the facial muscles. Swallowing and tongue problems can rate under DC 8210 (vagus, up to 50 percent) or DC 8212 (hypoglossal, up to 50 percent).
Cognitive residuals
Do not let anyone route your post-stroke cognitive impairment through DC 8045. That code is titled "Residuals of traumatic brain injury (TBI)," and a stroke is not a traumatic brain injury. The correct home for vascular cognitive loss is 38 CFR 4.130, the mental disorders schedule, at DC 9305, major or mild vascular neurocognitive disorder. It is rated under the General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders:
| Level of occupational and social impairment | Rating |
|---|
| Total occupational and social impairment | 100 |
| Deficiencies in most areas (work, family, judgment, thinking, mood) | 70 |
| Reduced reliability and productivity | 50 |
| Occasional decrease in work efficiency | 30 |
| Mild or transient symptoms, or symptoms controlled by medication | 10 |
| Diagnosed but symptoms not severe enough to interfere with functioning | 0 |
Memory loss, impaired judgment, impaired abstract thinking, and difficulty understanding complex commands are named criteria at the 50 percent level. Those are ordinary post-stroke findings.
Speech loss
38 CFR 4.124a has no aphasia code. Aphasia and dysarthria are rated by analogy under 38 CFR 4.20, most often against DC 6519, aphonia, complete organic: 100 percent for constant inability to communicate by speech, 60 percent for constant inability to speak above a whisper. Insist that the analogous code be named in your decision.
Post-stroke seizures
Seizure disorder that develops after a stroke rates under the General Rating Formula for Major and Minor Epileptic Seizures, which reaches 100 percent for an average of at least one major seizure per month over the last year and 80 percent for at least one major seizure in three months, or more than 10 minor seizures weekly.
How the Pieces Combine
Separate residual ratings combine under the 38 CFR 4.25 combined ratings table, not by addition. An example: 40 percent for moderate incomplete paralysis of the dominant arm under 8513, 20 percent for moderate sciatic involvement under 8520, and 10 percent for moderate facial nerve paralysis under 8207 combine to 57, which rounds to a 60 percent combined evaluation.
Two limits apply. 38 CFR 4.14 prohibits pyramiding, meaning the same manifestation cannot be rated twice under different diagnoses. And you cannot stack separate residual ratings on top of the 10 percent minimum. The minimum is a floor for when residuals are hard to quantify, not a bonus added to itemized ratings.
2026 Payment Amounts
VA compensation rates rose 2.8 percent for 2026, effective December 1, 2025. Monthly amounts for a veteran with no dependents:
| Combined rating | Monthly payment (veteran alone) |
|---|
| 10% | $180.42 |
| 20% | $356.66 |
| 30% | $552.47 |
| 40% | $795.84 |
| 50% | $1,132.90 |
| 60% | $1,435.02 |
| 70% | $1,808.45 |
| 80% | $2,102.15 |
| 90% | $2,362.30 |
| 100% | $3,938.58 |
At 100 percent with a spouse, the 2026 rate is $4,158.17. Ratings of 30 percent and above add dependent amounts.
Special Monthly Compensation and TDIU
Severe stroke residuals often qualify for benefits beyond the schedular rating.
Special Monthly Compensation applies for loss of use of an extremity or the regular need for aid and attendance, which is common after a disabling stroke. SMC-L for a veteran alone pays $4,900.83 per month in 2026, above the 100 percent schedular rate, and the higher levels run to $6,877.12 at SMC-O. SMC-K adds $139.87 per month for certain specific losses and can be paid alongside any rating from 0 to 100 percent.
Total Disability based on Individual Unemployability pays at the 100 percent rate when service-connected disabilities prevent substantially gainful employment even though the schedular combined rating is lower. Under 38 CFR 4.16(a), the thresholds are one disability rated 60 percent or more, or two or more disabilities with at least one at 40 percent and a combined rating of 70 percent or more. That section also directs that disabilities of one or both upper extremities, or one or both lower extremities, and disabilities from a common etiology, be treated as one disability for meeting the threshold. Stroke residuals almost always share a common etiology, which makes the 60 percent single-disability path reachable for many stroke claimants.
Getting the Stroke Service Connected
The rating only matters once service connection is established. Three routes:
Direct. The stroke occurred during active service or within a presumptive period, documented in service treatment records.
Secondary. This is the most common path for stroke claims. A stroke caused or aggravated by an already service-connected condition is service connected under 38 CFR 3.310. The usual predicates are hypertension, diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease, atrial fibrillation, sleep apnea, and PTSD. Hypertension is the strongest medical link, and the PACT Act added hypertension to the list of conditions presumptively connected to herbicide exposure, which opened a secondary stroke path for many Vietnam-era veterans who had no service-connected condition to build on before.
Presumptive. If your underlying condition is presumptive (herbicide, burn pit, radiation, Gulf War), you establish that condition without a nexus opinion, then connect the stroke to it as a secondary claim.
Filing steps
- Confirm or file the predicate claim. If you are going the secondary route and hypertension or diabetes is not yet service connected, claim it first or at the same time.
- File VA Form 21-526EZ for a new claim, or VA Form 20-0995 as a supplemental claim if you were previously denied and now have new and relevant evidence.
- Gather the imaging. The CT or MRI showing the infarct or hemorrhage, hospital discharge summary, and the date of the event. The date drives the six-month 100 percent window.
- Document every residual separately. Neurology notes, physical therapy and occupational therapy records, speech-language pathology evaluations, and neuropsychological testing. Each one supports a different diagnostic code.
- Get a nexus opinion for secondary claims. A physician statement that the service-connected condition at least as likely as not caused or aggravated the stroke.
- Add lay statements. Spouse and adult children describing what you can no longer do is direct evidence of functional loss.
- Attend the C&P exam. Describe your worst days honestly, not your best. Bring a list of every deficit so nothing gets omitted from the examiner's report.
Protecting the Rating After It Is Assigned
Stroke deficits can improve with rehabilitation, and VA may schedule re-examinations. Two protections matter.
38 CFR 3.105(e) requires the proposal, the notice, and the 60-day response window before any reduction takes effect. Use that window. Submit current treatment records and a statement from your treating neurologist.
38 CFR 3.344 requires that ratings continued at the same level for five years or more not be reduced on a single examination unless the entire record clearly warrants a conclusion of sustained improvement, and that examinations less full and complete than the ones that supported the rating cannot be used as a basis for reduction. A twenty-minute contract exam is often exactly that.
If you are also pursuing Social Security disability after a stroke, that is a separate agency with separate rules, and a VA rating does not bind SSA. See our guide to SSDI after a stroke for how that program evaluates the same medical event.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the VA disability rating for stroke residuals?
Stroke is rated 100 percent for six months under DC 8007, 8008, or 8009. After that, VA rates the remaining residuals under their own diagnostic codes, with a minimum of 10 percent when ascertainable residuals exist. The final combined rating depends entirely on what deficits remain.
Is DC 8009 the code for all strokes?
DC 8009 is specifically hemorrhagic stroke. DC 8007 is embolic and DC 8008 is thrombotic. All three carry identical rating instructions, and 8009 is often used loosely to refer to stroke ratings in general.
Does the six-month 100 percent rating start from the stroke or from when I file?
The six-month total evaluation is tied to the cerebrovascular event itself. Effective dates for compensation still follow the ordinary rules based on when the claim was filed, so filing promptly after the stroke matters.
Can I get more than 10 percent for stroke residuals?
Yes. The 10 percent is a minimum, not a cap. Hemiparesis of the dominant arm rated under DC 8513 reaches 90 percent on its own for complete paralysis, and residuals rated under separate codes combine under 38 CFR 4.25.
How does VA rate memory loss after a stroke?
Under DC 9305, major or mild vascular neurocognitive disorder, using the General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders in 38 CFR 4.130. It is not rated under DC 8045, which covers traumatic brain injury.
Can I claim a stroke as secondary to hypertension?
Yes, under 38 CFR 3.310, if the service-connected hypertension caused or aggravated the stroke and a medical opinion supports the link. Since the PACT Act made hypertension presumptive for herbicide-exposed veterans, this has become one of the most common stroke claim paths.
Will VA reduce my rating if I recover?
It can, but only through the process in 38 CFR 3.105(e), which requires a proposed reduction, written notice, and 60 days for you to respond. Ratings held at the same level for five years or more get additional protection under 38 CFR 3.344.
What does the VA pay for 100 percent in 2026?
$3,938.58 per month for a veteran with no dependents, and $4,158.17 with a spouse, effective December 1, 2025. Veterans needing aid and attendance may qualify for Special Monthly Compensation at higher rates.
