Anchorage is home to nearly 20,000 veterans, and the Census records about 12,203 of them carrying no service-connected rating. If yours is missing because the VA wrongly rejected a claim it should have granted, Hill & Ponton can help you appeal.
About 8,536 more Anchorage veterans already have a rating, though for plenty of them it sits below the daily toll their condition takes. We push to get those numbers corrected.
We are VA-accredited disability attorneys, and our practice is narrow by design: we appeal denied claims and challenge ratings that came back too low.
Whether your disability traces to a deployment far away or set in after you came north to Alaska, we pick the claim up wherever it stalled and move it ahead, and you owe us nothing unless the appeal succeeds.
Our Work for Anchorage Veterans
- Disability Compensation: We work to win every dollar of compensation a service-connected condition supports, along with the back pay owed from the day you first became eligible.
- VA Disability Appeals: When a decision comes back as a denial or a lowball rating, we run the appeal from end to end, reopening the file, recovering the records and expert opinions the VA skipped, and reshaping the case into what it should have been.
- Rating Increases: Conditions evolve. Once yours has worsened since the VA’s last look, we document it and press for a higher rating, and the heftier monthly check, your health now warrants.
- Special Monthly Compensation: The gravest injuries and illnesses can qualify you for Special Monthly Compensation, a tier above the usual schedule.
- Individual Unemployability: If service-connected conditions push steady work out of reach, TDIU pays you at the full 100% level even if the combined figure is lower. We assemble the work and medical evidence it relies on.
- DIC and Survivor Benefits: Where a service-connected condition ultimately proves fatal, the survivors, a spouse, child, or parent, may be able to claim Dependency and Indemnity Compensation. We stand with those families throughout.
What Your Disability Rating Is Worth
The VA scores each service-connected condition from 10% up to 100% in ten-point increments, and that score fixes your tax-free monthly payment.
Several ratings do not simply add together; the VA runs them through a combining formula whose result often surprises veterans, which is why precision matters.
To gauge your total, feed your ratings into the VA disability calculator.
Right now, one veteran with no dependents is paid the following compensation each month:
- 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
Federal compensation is only part of it. Anchorage veterans can also draw on Alaska state benefits, such as property tax breaks for veterans with disabilities.
Work with us to get your Benefits
JBER and Other Toxic Exposures
Unlike most cities, Anchorage sits right beside a major source of military contamination. Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, built from the former Elmendorf Air Force Base and Fort Richardson, carries decades of documented pollution, and veterans who served there and later fell ill may have a claim worth pursuing.
- Elmendorf Air Force Base: An EPA Superfund site since 1990, with industrial solvents like TCE, heavy metals, plus PFOS and PFOA left behind by firefighting foam in its soil and groundwater.
- Fort Richardson: A second EPA Superfund site, tainted with chlorinated solvents, white phosphorus in the Eagle River Flats, arsenic, and PFAS from its fire-training areas.
Other Alaska postings carry their own histories, from Adak Naval Air Station in the Aleutians to Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks or the radiation of the Amchitka nuclear tests, alongside the exposures many veterans met elsewhere.
Wherever a toxic exposure connects to your diagnosis, a past denial is not where it has to end, and we have spent years tying illnesses to the exposures that caused them.
The Building Blocks of an Approved Claim
A claim has to satisfy the same three standards, and weakness in any one usually ends in a denial.
- A diagnosis on the books – a clinician, VA or civilian, confirms in writing that the condition is present today.
- A service link – your file must tie the condition to an injury, illness, incident, or exposure during your service.
- A medical nexus – a qualified clinician connects the two, deeming it “at least as likely as not” rooted in service. This is the link most claims rise or fall on.
Our VA disability attorneys have learned how the VA judges a file, the spots where claims unravel, and how to put one together that captures your real daily life.
Tell us about your case
When to Bring in a VA Disability Lawyer
Handling the first claim solo is reasonable, and plenty of Anchorage veterans do. Things shift after a denial, or a rating blind to how hard your days have gotten, and that is where seasoned counsel earns its place.
This firm exists to guide veterans through a process designed to wear them down. When a case jams behind absent evidence or a senseless ruling, we pry the file open, trace the breakdown, and rebuild. We have carried that work coast to coast, and Anchorage is no different.
We track every turn VA disability law takes, whether from new regulations or the appeals courts, and aim it at the increased ratings, unemployability pay, and special compensation you might be owed. A botched rating or an outright refusal is our cue to move.
A look at your situation is free, and we get paid only when you do. If the VA has shut you out, call us and we will help you chart a way back.
VA Resources for Anchorage Veterans
- Alaska VA Healthcare System, Rasmuson Campus – The anchor of VA care in Alaska, with primary, specialty, and mental health services plus homeless-veteran programs. 1201 North Muldoon Road, Anchorage, AK 99504. Phone: 907-257-5490
- JBER VA Medical Center – A Defense Department and VA joint-venture hospital on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, offering specialty, inpatient, and 24/7 emergency care. 5955 Zeamer Avenue, JBER, AK 99506. Phone: 888-353-7574
- Anchorage Vet Center – Confidential, no-cost help with PTSD, MST, and readjustment, kept apart from your VA medical file. 4400 Business Park Boulevard, Suite B-34, Anchorage, AK 99503. Phone: 907-563-6966
- Anchorage VA Regional Benefit Office – Alaska’s VA claims-and-appeals office, on the Muldoon Road campus. 1201 North Muldoon Road, Suite 2A140, Anchorage, AK 99504. National benefits line: 800-827-1000
- Alaska Office of Veterans Affairs – State service officers who help Alaska veterans prepare and pursue VA claims for free. 4600 DeBarr Road, Suite 180, Anchorage, AK 99508. Phone: 907-334-0874
Support for Veterans Without Stable Housing
The Anchorage Point-in-Time count recorded 67 homeless veterans on one January night. For veterans slipping toward that edge, VA and government programs reach for permanent housing, not just a night indoors.
The Alaska VA Healthcare System coordinates homeless-veteran services from its Anchorage campus, linking HUD-VASH vouchers, case management, Health Care for Homeless Veterans, and Grant and Per Diem transitional housing, plus mental health and addiction treatment and help getting back to work.
We have repeatedly tracked a household’s loss of housing back to a benefit the VA delayed or wrongly denied; that is why veterans teetering toward homelessness come first with us at Hill & Ponton.
Has a VA decision left your benefits stalled, denied, or set too low? We can take up the fight, with nothing due upfront and a fee only if the appeal succeeds. Reach us for a free look at where things stand.
Meet Our Expert Legal Team
VA Disability Attorneys and professionals championing veterans in Anchorage, Alaska and nationwide.
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Need help appealing a VA decision? Contact our disability lawyers for a free evaluation of your claim.
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