PTSD Rating Increase: Document Changes in Work and Daily Life

A PTSD rating increase depends on how much your symptoms affect work, relationships and daily life now, compared with the period behind your current rating. The most useful evidence is a before-and-after comparison: the specific jobs, shifts, routines and relationships that changed, with approximate dates and records, written in your own words rather than in rating language.

VA rates PTSD under the General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders. The 50% level describes "reduced reliability and productivity," 70% describes "deficiencies in most areas, such as work, school, family relations, judgment, thinking, or mood," and 100% describes "total occupational and social impairment." The symptoms listed at each level are examples, not a checklist, so the overall effect on your life is what a rater weighs. VA's PTSD review DBQ asks the examiner the same questions. The PTSD condition guide explains the criteria. If VA denied service connection for PTSD rather than a higher rating, start with the unresolved element in that denial instead.

Choose real comparison periods

Use a meaningful earlier period, such as the months around your last evaluation, and a current period. If you do not know an exact date, give an approximate one. Check treatment notes, attendance records or calendar entries rather than building a tidy timeline from memory.

Not every row needs a change. "About the same" is an honest answer. Note improvements as well as setbacks, especially where treatment helped.

Write the comparison without scripting a rating

Fictional example: "Last spring I usually finished my shift, though I needed a quiet break after crowded meetings. Since July I have left two meetings early when I was overwhelmed, and a coworker had to finish my handoff. I still work full time. My September treatment note discusses the increase in symptoms."

That statement gives actual function, a time frame and a record to check. It does not claim that work has ended when it has not, and it does not borrow the wording of a rating level. A family member or coworker can describe a change they saw, but should not be told which symptoms or conclusion to write.

If a symptom is hard to talk about, write a short factual note for your own clinician. Treatment is a health decision, not a claims tactic, so do not stop or change medication to make symptoms more visible. If you are in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, contact the Veterans Crisis Line: dial 988 then press 1, text 838255, or chat online, 24 hours a day.

One appeal: 70%, TDIU and housebound-rate SMC

In Board decision A25094851, October 31, 2025, a veteran rated 30% for PTSD asked for more. A June 2021 VA exam had described the 30% level: occasional decreases in work efficiency, with generally satisfactory functioning. At a June 2025 hearing, he described his life in specific terms: 14 jobs in the seven years after service, many left within a month; fewer than four hours of sleep a night and grogginess during the day; near-continuous panic and anxiety despite medication; memory and motivation problems; rarely leaving the house; younger siblings doing 75 to 80 percent of the household chores and reminding him to shower; and constant thoughts of death, while he denied suicidal or homicidal thoughts.

The Board of Veterans' Appeals (the Board) found the evidence approximately balanced and granted 70% effective June 8, 2021. It found the record did not show the total impairment required for 100%. It then went further:

• TDIU on PTSD alone. The Board granted a total disability rating based on individual unemployability (TDIU), effective August 21, 2021, the day after he last worked full time. It found that his PTSD alone kept him from securing and following substantially gainful work, even though his updated employment form listed sporadic part-time work of about an hour a month in each of two roles.
• Special monthly compensation at the housebound rate. Because he now had a total rating based on one disability and his other service-connected disabilities were independently rated at 60%, the Board granted SMC under 38 U.S.C. § 1114(s) from August 21, 2021. It noted that VA must decide this kind of added benefit as part of the claim, without a separate application.

The lesson is about description, not a target percentage. The hearing account named jobs, hours of sleep, and who now did the chores. If you are thinking about unemployability, the TDIU guide explains the thresholds and evidence.

Do not borrow another person's history or leave out improvements to resemble this appeal.

What Claim Raven's Board data shows for PTSD

In Claim Raven's analysis of 2024 to 2025 Board decisions, PTSD was a decided issue in 1,609 condition records: 45.4% favorable, 28.2% denied and 26.4% remanded. Where the Board quoted lay evidence such as the veteran's or a witness's statements, 53.3% of 537 PTSD records were favorable, compared with 32.9% of 413 where it did not. TDIU was decided in 453 condition records, 51.2% of them favorable. The PTSD label mixes service-connection and rating issues, and these are appeals of already-disputed claims, so the figures describe patterns, not your odds or a cause. Claim Raven's PTSD study breaks the pattern down further.

Connect your notes to the record

A few concrete examples plus recent clinical care usually say more than a thick stack of adjectives. Note appointments, treatment changes and your clinician's assessment. Keep your observation ("I missed two morning shifts after poor sleep") separate from a medical conclusion about why it happened. VA's increased-claim guidance asks for current evidence that the condition has worsened, and lay evidence counts. If VA has already denied the increase, compare the decision with the criteria it applied.

Claim Raven, which has a commercial interest in its paid tools, offers the free statement builder on this page to organize your answers into a draft you review and download. Keep the earlier and current notes behind the summary.

Sources and scope

Checked September 23, 2026: 38 C.F.R. § 4.130 (eCFR, current through August 27, 2026); VA's PTSD review DBQ; VA evidence guidance; the Veterans Crisis Line; and Board decision A25094851. This worksheet is not mental health care or a rating forecast.