What is the Headaches and Migraine VA claim approval rate at the Board?

Across 55,901 headaches and migraine issues decided by the Board of Veterans' Appeals in 2009–2025, 30.0% were granted, 29.0% denied and 33.4% remanded. Of the issues the Board decided on the merits, 50.9% were granted. Source: VetAid analysis of 1,340,998 published BVA decisions.

Why are headaches and migraine claims denied?

In a hand-tagged sample of 147 Board decisions involving headaches and migraine, the leading reason was VA failed its duty to assist, appearing in 38.8% of them - not veteran credibility, which appears far less often.

Can tinnitus be rated higher than 10% in 2026?

The maximum schedular rating remains 10%. However, you can pursue extraschedular ratings under 38 CFR § 3.321(b)(1) for exceptional cases, or focus on secondary conditions which have no rating caps.

What's the most valuable secondary condition for tinnitus?

Depression and anxiety disorders offer the highest potential ratings (up to 100%) and are commonly caused by chronic tinnitus. Sleep disorders are also valuable, with ratings up to 50%.

Do I need an audiogram to prove tinnitus?

No. Tinnitus is considered a lay-competent condition under Charles v. Principi. Your testimony about the ringing is sufficient evidence. However, audiograms can help establish noise-induced hearing damage that supports your tinnitus claim.

Why do so many tinnitus claims get denied?

Based on our analysis of 148 cases, 42.8% are denied because service connection was not established, and 14.5% on credibility findings. Most denials stem from inadequate documentation of military noise exposure.

Can bilateral tinnitus get a higher rating than unilateral?

No. The VA rates tinnitus at 10% regardless of whether it affects one or both ears. This is why secondary conditions become critical for fair compensation reflecting the true impact of your tinnitus.

Headaches and Migraine VA Claim Approval Rate: What the Board Actually Decided (2009–2025)

Across 55,901 headaches and migraine issues the Board of Veterans’ Appeals decided in 2009–2025, 30.0% were granted, 29.0% denied and 33.4% remanded. From 1,340,998 published BVA decisions, updated nightly.

55,901

Headaches and Migraine issues the Board decided, 2009–2025

Most guidance on headaches and migraine claims explains what the regulation says. This page reports what the Board did — every headaches and migraine issue in the 1,340,998 Board of Veterans’ Appeals decisions VetAid has parsed from the published record, counted at the issue level the way the Board itself reports.

What would this rating pay you? (2026 rates)

Official 2026 VA monthly compensation, including the 2.8% COLA increase.

Rating Married Children

per month · per year, tax-free

Dependent add-ons start at a 30% rating. Child-only and dependent-parent rates: see the full 2026 pay chart.

2026 base rates, all ratings (veteran alone)

Rating	Monthly (2026, incl. 2.8% COLA)
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

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Outcomes, 2009–2025

Disposition	Issues	Share
Granted	16,791	30.0%
Denied	16,216	29.0%
Remanded — sent back rather than decided	18,655	33.4%
Dismissed	3,665	6.6%
Withdrawn, vacated, moot, referred	574	1.0%

Of the issues the Board decided on the merits — granted or denied, leaving remands aside — 50.9% were granted. See the live Headaches and Migraine decision list.

By year

Only years the crawl has fully exhausted are shown; the current year and any year still downloading are left out so a partial year cannot pose as a trend.

Year	Issues	Granted	Denied	Remanded
2009	992	30.0%	64.1%	2.1%
2010	855	40.4%	53.2%	2.3%
2011	879	40.5%	52.7%	1.7%
2012	874	45.1%	47.7%	2.1%
2013	750	41.6%	50.4%	2.1%
2014	1,048	45.1%	45.2%	3.0%
2015	1,170	48.9%	40.9%	3.4%
2016	1,109	47.2%	42.1%	2.4%
2017	1,509	44.0%	47.4%	1.6%
2018	1,859	38.5%	31.1%	24.8%
2019	6,069	24.6%	26.1%	44.9%
2020	5,401	25.1%	27.8%	41.7%
2021	4,978	26.1%	25.0%	42.1%
2022	4,940	26.6%	20.8%	44.9%
2023	6,295	26.7%	22.0%	42.1%
2024	7,671	28.4%	24.3%	37.0%
2025	9,502	29.6%	26.8%	33.7%

Why these claims actually fail

The full corpus records what the Board decided, not why. For the why, VetAid hand-tagged a smaller sample: 147 Board decisions involving headaches and migraine. A decision may carry more than one reason, so shares can exceed 100%.

Reason stated in the decision	Decisions	Share of 147
VA failed its duty to assist	57	38.8%
no medical nexus	38	25.9%
evidence not new and material	15	10.2%
lay evidence held not competent	11	7.5%
inadequate C&P examination	6	4.1%

Note what leads: VA failed its duty to assist, in 38.8% of the tagged decisions. Most published advice tells veterans to shore up their own credibility. In this record credibility findings sit near the bottom — the far more common failure is procedural, and it is VA’ burden, not the veteran’.

Authorities the Board relied on (tagged sample)

Lynch v. Mc — cited in 56 decisions
Rodriguez v. Peake — cited in 53 decisions
Shedden v. Principi — cited in 43 decisions
Jandreau v. Nicholson — cited in 42 decisions
Gilbert v. Derwinski — cited in 32 decisions

Regulations most often applied (tagged sample)

38 CFR 20.1303 — 147 decisions
38 CFR 3.102 — 108 decisions
38 USC 1110 — 81 decisions
38 USC 1155 — 66 decisions
38 CFR 3.303 — 62 decisions
38 CFR 20.300 — 54 decisions

Want to know which of these patterns your own claim matches? VetAid checks your claim against this decision record. Free, and we never take a cut of your back pay.

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Method and provenance

Outcomes: 55,901 issues involving headaches and migraine in 53,705 decisions, drawn from 1,340,998 public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decisions (2007-06-01 to 2026-04-30) at va.gov/vetapp, parsed at the issue level. The headline rates use complete years only (2009–2025); the corpus also holds 59,475 such issues across all years downloaded so far. Decisions the parser could not read cleanly (82,386) are excluded from the rates. This page is regenerated automatically each night by data_moat/gen_outcome_pages.py as the crawl grows. Board-wide rates by condition and judge: /bva/outcomes.

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