Hill & Ponton’s VA-accredited attorneys concentrate on one job: reversing wrongful denials and increasing ratings the VA set too low. Nearly 6,900 veterans call Rapid City home, and the newest five-year Census figures estimate that 4,362 don’t have a service-connected rating. Some were denied a claim the VA should have granted.
Another 2,566 Rapid City veterans do report a rating, but a fair share of those percentages don’t reflect their daily life struggles. Correcting undervalued ratings and appealing denials is what we do, and we’ve been successfully assisting veterans for 40 years.
Whether the medical condition traces back to Ellsworth’s flight line or a deployment overseas, we pick up your claim at whatever stage it stalled, and no fee is due unless we win the appeal.
How We Help Rapid City Veterans
- Disability Compensation: We pursue every dollar a service-connected condition is worth, including the back pay owed from an earlier effective date.
- VA Disability Appeals: We can reopen the case with the medical evidence and expert opinions the first decision skipped.
- Rating Increases: When a condition deteriorates, the rating should climb with it. We gather proof of the decline and push the VA for the higher percentage and pay.
- Special Monthly Compensation: Amputations, blindness, a housebound condition, or a condition demanding daily aid may entitle a veteran to Special Monthly Compensation on top of the standard pay chart.
- Individual Unemployability: TDIU pays at the 100% rate when service-connected conditions keep a veteran from holding steady work, even with a combined rating that falls short. We assemble the employment history and medical proof.
- DIC and Survivor Benefits: A veteran’s death from a service-connected condition can entitle the surviving spouse, children, or dependent parents to Dependency and Indemnity Compensation.
What Your VA Rating Pays Each Month
Every service-connected condition receives its own rating, 10% at the low end and 100% at the top, and the combined figure determines the tax-free amount deposited each month.
Multiple conditions never simply add together. VA math blends the percentages, and the result usually lands below the straight sum, so one underrated condition drags down the entire figure.
Check your numbers with the VA disability calculator to see your true combined rating.
For a veteran with no dependents, the current monthly rates look like this:
- 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
Adding a spouse or children raises the payment, and the annual cost-of-living adjustment lifts it again each year.
The state adds its own support. South Dakota state benefits include a property tax exemption on up to $200,000 of a home’s assessed value for veterans rated permanently and totally disabled.
Work with us to get your Benefits
Ellsworth, West Camp Rapid, and Other Toxic Sites
Ellsworth Air Force Base sits just east of Rapid City, and the EPA lists it as a Superfund site. The Air Force first detected PFAS in the base’s groundwater in 2011, a plume estimated at about 25 miles long that by 2016 had tainted private drinking water wells, and trichloroethylene (TCE) and other industrial solvents are documented there as well.
West Camp Rapid, the South Dakota Army National Guard post inside Rapid City itself, carries documented PFAS from firefighting foam.
Other exposures follow veterans home from distant postings: Agent Orange in Vietnam, the burn pits recognized by the PACT Act, Camp Lejeune’s contaminated wells, or dangerous substances at U.S. military bases. Our lawyers have been working for decades to connect illnesses to the toxins that caused them and win proper compensation for the affected veterans.
Proof That Decides a VA Claim
- A current diagnosis – medical records, VA or private, establishing that the condition exists today.
- An in-service event – an injury, illness, accident, or exposure documented during your time in uniform.
- A medical nexus – a qualified medical opinion connecting the two, with a statement that service “at least as likely as not” caused the condition. A missing or weak nexus is the most common reason a claim comes back denied.
Our VA disability attorneys read a file the way VA raters do, find the gap that sank it, and bring in the correct evidence until the full weight of your condition comes through.
Tell us about your case
The Right Moment to Bring in a VA Lawyer
Plenty of Rapid City veterans handle the first filing by themselves, and for some that’s enough. A denial, a case wrongly closed, or a percentage far below reality is the point when experienced representation becomes important.
The appeal system offers three lanes: a Supplemental Claim, a Higher-Level Review, or an appeal to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. Picking the wrong lane costs months, so we match the lane to the evidence and keep every deadline.
40 years of appeals work have shown us the places a case breaks down and what rebuilds it, and we follow each shift in VA disability law that could raise what a veteran is owed, from new regulations to fresh appellate rulings.
Your case review is free, and a fee exists only if we win. If the VA shut your claim down, let us take up the fight to reopen it.
Where Rapid City Veterans Get VA Services
- Rapid City VA Clinic – VA Black Hills outpatient clinic for primary care, mental health care, and specialty services in town. 2165 Promise Road, Rapid City, SD 57701. Phone: 605-718-1095
- Rapid City Vet Center – Free, private counseling covering combat stress, readjustment struggles, and military sexual trauma, kept out of VA medical records. 21 East Omaha Street, Rapid City, SD 57701. Phone: 605-348-0077
- Fort Meade VA Medical Center – VA Black Hills’ full-service hospital and the parent facility for the Rapid City clinic. 113 Comanche Road, Fort Meade, SD 57741. Phone: 605-347-2511
- Pennington County Veterans Service Office – The county’s accredited service officers help veterans, dependents, and survivors apply for VA and state benefits at no cost. 321 Kansas City Street, Suite 100, Rapid City, SD 57701. Phone: 605-394-2266
- Sioux Falls VA Regional Benefit Office – The benefits office for South Dakota disability claims, located at the Royal C. Johnson Veterans’ Memorial Hospital. 2501 West 22nd Street, Building 38, Sioux Falls, SD 57105. National benefits line: 800-827-1000
Housing Support for Veterans in Crisis
South Dakota’s Point-in-Time count found 43 homeless veterans in a single night during the January 2025 count. Federal and state programs work to move those veterans into permanent housing and help those who are at risk of homelessness.
VA Black Hills homeless veteran care coordinates the response for western South Dakota: HUD-VASH vouchers paired with case management, Grant and Per Diem transitional housing, Health Care for Homeless Veterans outreach, and employment programs that rebuild an income.
A wrongly denied benefit is often the first domino to fall before a veteran loses housing, which is why at Hill & Ponton veterans on the edge move to the front of the line. If the VA denied, delayed, or underrated your benefits, our lawyers can take over the appeal, free to start, with a fee due only after a win. Ask for your free, no-obligation case review today.
Meet Our Expert Legal Team
VA disability attorneys and professionals standing up for veterans in Rapid City, South Dakota and across the country.
Let Us Fight For Your Benefits
Need help appealing a VA decision? Contact our VA disability lawyers for a free evaluation of your claim.