Migraines can have a profound impact on the lives of veterans, affecting not only their quality of life but also their ability to work and engage in daily activities. Veterans suffering from service-connected migraines may be eligible for VA disability compensation.
What Is the VA Rating for Migraines?
The VA disability rating for migraines is 0%, 10%, 30% or 50%, depending on the frequency, severity, and impact on daily life and ability to work. The maximum migraine VA rating is 50% and is given for prostrating migraines that frequently prevent veterans from working.
- 50% – With very frequent completely prostrating and prolonged attacks producing severe economic inadaptability
- 30% – With characteristic prostrating attacks occurring on an average once a month over the last several months
- 10% – With characteristic prostrating attacks averaging one in 2 months over the last several months
- 0% – With less frequent attacks
VA rates migraines under Diagnostic Code 8100 in VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities (VASRD) and the rating criteria focus on how debilitating your migraines are. One of the key terms you’ll encounter when filing a migraine VA claim is “prostrating.” This term refers to migraines that are so severe that you must rest or lay down, unable to perform daily tasks.
Prostrating Migraine VA Rating
If your migraines cause characteristic prostrating attacks that occur once a month, you may qualify for a 30% rating. For those with less frequent attacks, VA may assign a 10% or noncompensable rating. To receive a 50% prostrating migraine VA rating, you must demonstrate that your migraines are frequent, severe, and significantly impair your ability to work.
Do My Headaches Qualify?
VA recognizes various types of headaches, including migraines. These severe headaches may cause debilitating symptoms such as:
- Intense, throbbing head pain (usually on one side of the head)
- Sensitivity to light and sound
- Nausea and vomiting
- Visual disturbances (aura)
If you’re unsure whether your headaches qualify as migraines, VA doctors will evaluate your symptoms and medical history to make a determination. You can also refer to our guides on Migraines Secondary to Depression and TBI Migraine to learn more about how these conditions might connect to your service-related issues.
How Do I Get 50% VA Disability for Migraines?
To receive a 50% rating for your migraine headaches, you need to provide thorough evidence showing that the migraines are frequent and completely prostrating, causing significant disruption to your ability to work. The key is proving that your migraines result in severe economic inadaptability, meaning they severely impact your earning capacity.
Steps to Take:
- Document every migraine attack, including how long it lasts, the intensity, and whether it required you to rest or miss work.
- Obtain medical evidence demonstrating the severity and frequency of your migraines.
- Provide statements from employers, family members, or coworkers attesting to the impact of your migraines on your ability to work or perform daily activities.
Even if you receive the maximum migraine VA rating of 50%, there may be opportunities to increase your overall compensation through secondary conditions or Total Disability Individual Unemployability (TDIU).
Winning Case Example: 30% to 50% Migraine VA Rating
In this case, a veteran who served from 1996 to 1999 filed a claim for an increased disability rating due to her service-connected migraine headaches. Initially rated at 30%, the veteran believed that her migraines were more severe than reflected in the assigned rating. After appealing the decision, the Board of Veterans’ Appeals reviewed the evidence and ultimately increased the veteran’s migraine rating to 50%.
Why VA Granted the 50% Rating:
- Frequent and Severe Migraine Attacks: The veteran’s private and VA medical records demonstrated that her migraines occurred frequently—up to 20 times per month—and were severe enough to require emergency treatment, including intramuscular injections. The frequency and intensity of her migraines significantly impacted her ability to work, as she was forced to miss multiple days of employment.
- Impact on Employment: The veteran testified that her migraines made it impossible for her to maintain consistent employment. During a VA examination, it was noted that her flexibility and adaptability in a work environment were severely impaired due to her migraines. This contributed to the determination that her migraines were productive of severe economic inadaptability, a key requirement for the 50% rating.
- Prostrating Nature of the Migraines: The veteran’s migraines were documented as completely prostrating, meaning she had to lie down in a dark, quiet room to recover. Her migraines caused nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light and noise, and incapacitation for several days at a time, aligning with VA’s criteria for a higher rating.
- Consistent Medical Documentation and Testimony: The veteran’s medical records, personal testimony, and statements from healthcare providers all aligned to paint a clear picture of the severity of her condition. She documented the impact of her migraines on her daily life, including how they interfered with her ability to care for her children and engage in everyday activities.
By documenting the frequency, severity, and economic impact of her migraines, the veteran successfully demonstrated that her condition warranted an increased rating.
If you’re seeking to increase your migraine VA rating, make sure to present documentation and prove how your condition impacts your daily life and employment. Our legal team may also be able to help you – with no upfront costs.
VA Attorney Matthew Hill’s Advice to Veterans
The maximum rating for migraines is 50%. VA set up its rating schedule to match the severity of a disability with how much the disability impairs a veteran’s ability to work. The higher the rating the more the disability interferes with the veteran’s ability to work.
By offering a 50% rating as the highest rating for migraines, the VA is implicitly stating that migraines cannot completely impair one’s ability to work. But I have represented multiple veterans who have weekly prostrating migraines. These veterans have to retreat to a dark room and cannot do any work for the whole day.
When I asked a vocational expert about what it means for a person to miss one to two days a week of work, the expert told me that, effectively, this person is unemployable because no standard work setting would allow a person to miss that much work.
So, if you have migraines and as a result cannot work, a 50% rating is not an adequate rating for you. You must insist that the VA rate you totally disabled due to individual unemployability (IU) due to extraschedular.
Typically, IU ratings are reserved for individuals who are rated at least 70% and have demonstrated to the VA that they cannot work. Once again, a 70% rating is not a possible rating for someone battling migraines. The VA’s own regulations state that the VA must consider an IU rating if the veteran has shown that they cannot work due to a VA service-connected disability.
In these cases, I seek the opinion of vocational experts. These experts can look at the time lost and the functional loss resulting from migraines and then show how the migraines prevent the veteran from working. With a vocational expert report, I force the VA to consider whether the migraines cause individual unemployability. Remember, if your service-connected disability prevents you from working, then the VA should compensate you at the maximum rating.
Underrated? We Can Help
If your VA disability claim for migraines has been denied or you feel your rating is too low, you can appeal the decision. Get a free evaluation here – we specialize in VA appeals and will point you in the right direction even if we don’t take your case.
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Shannon was born on MacDill AFB in Tampa, Florida as the daughter of a U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant and a high school English teacher. She was a member of the University of Florida Law Review and published a case note on the Florida Privacy Amendment. She practiced land use and environmental law for several years but felt called to serve our veteran population and changed her practice area to veterans disability law.
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