r/VeteransBenefits

Reddit community and wiki · Veteran-moderated subreddit

The highest-volume daily conversation in the veterans’ benefits world, with a wiki that has become one of the best plain-language claims references anywhere. What veterans are actually hitting this week shows up here first. Its wiki has moved to its own home — the Veterans Benefits Knowledge Base at veteransbenefitskb.com — and the essential pages gathered below live there.

Why we carry them. The fastest pattern sensor in the ecosystem — the system’s new failure modes surface here before they surface anywhere official.

Start here — their essential work

• Introduction — The front door to the Veterans Benefits Knowledge Base — the standalone reference the r/VeteransBenefits community built from its wiki.
• Filing a VA Disability Claim — The full walkthrough: intent to file, the three elements every claim needs, evidence, and the common errors that get claims kicked back.
• Filing an Appeal — Higher-Level Review, supplemental claims, and the Board — the lanes, the one-year deadline that protects back pay, and how to choose.
• Special Monthly Compensation (SMC) — Every SMC level from K to T in plain language, including which levels VA should award automatically and which you must file for.
• Filing for Aid and Attendance/Housebound — Which forms (21-2680 and 21-0779), who completes which sections, and what to file if your own doctor refuses to complete the exam form.
• Requesting your C-File (Claims File) — How to get your complete claims file and code sheet — by FOIA/Privacy Act request, through a VSO, or in person — and why the code sheet matters.
• Community Care — Eligibility, drive-time and wait-time standards, urgent and emergency care rules, the 72-hour notification, and the billing traps.
• Presumptive Condition Index — The index of presumptive service connection: Agent Orange, burn pits, Camp Lejeune, Gulf War illness, radiation, and more.
• Compensation and Pension Examinations (C&Ps) — How to prepare for a C&P exam, what the examiner actually scores, and what to do about a bad exam.

Summaries are ours. The work is theirs — we link to it, we don’t lift it. Visit r/VeteransBenefits →