The Disability Evaluation System (DES) has two paths: the Integrated DES (IDES), run jointly by DoD and VA, and the Legacy DES (LDES), which is a DoD-only process for determining fitness for duty and military disability retirement pay, followed by a separate VA claim afterward.
IDES is designed so that a single set of Compensation and Pension (C&P) exams and a single Disability Benefits Questionnaire (DBQ) packet serve both the military's fitness determination and the VA's disability rating. The VA proposed rating is generally ready close to the time of separation, which is the main appeal of IDES for someone not yet rated.
Official 2026 VA monthly compensation, including the 2.8% COLA increase.
Dependent add-ons start at a 30% rating. Child-only and dependent-parent rates: see the full 2026 pay chart.
| 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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Analyze my claim free →For a service member who is already 100 percent Permanent and Total (P&T) with the VA, that main advantage is less relevant, because the VA rating already exists. Choosing IDES in this situation means new C&P exams will likely be scheduled for each condition marked on the Service History/Health Assessment (often called the SHA or similar intake questionnaire), even if the intent is not to seek re-evaluation. Any new exam creates the possibility that a rating could be reduced, increased, or split differently across conditions, since VA raters work from current exam findings, not from the existing rating alone. Annotating the SHA to say you are not seeking re-evaluation may reduce, but does not eliminate, the chance that a new exam is ordered.
Choosing LDES avoids a concurrent VA re-exam at this stage. The military board would proceed based on fitness for duty, and the existing VA rating stays untouched by the MEB/PEB process itself. However, LDES generally takes longer to result in any updated VA determination because that would only happen through a separate claim filed after separation, if one is filed at all.
Military disability retirement pay determinations (under Title 10) are separate from VA compensation, and the interaction between military retired pay, VA compensation, and programs like Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay (CRDP) or Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC) depends on the specific retirement basis, not on which DES track was used.
Because the exam and re-rating risk is the central issue here, the concrete next step is to ask the PEBLO directly, in writing, how the SHA responses will affect exam scheduling for conditions already VA-rated, and to get written confirmation before finalizing the IDES versus LDES election.
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