Neck pain

VA Disability Ratings for Neck Pain Conditions

If you injured your neck in service or exacerbated another condition that causes neck pain and loss of range of motion in your neck, you may qualify for VA disability benefits. It is possible to get a neck pain VA rating and receive disability compensation.

Veterans who experience stiffness, pain, or other issues in the neck may be able to trace their condition back to something that happened during their service. Car wrecks are the most common source of neck injuries, but there are many other ways to hurt your neck when you’re enlisted. This post explores the various types of neck injuries and conditions veterans experience and the VA’s rating for neck pain.

Neck pain among veterans

Veterans may experience neck pain for various reasons. Whether your neck pain started because of something that happened during service or was worsened by it, you deserve VA disability compensation for the pain.

Some common causes of neck pain and stiffness include:

Muscle Strain.

Overuse, like being hunched in a certain position for hours, often triggers muscle strain.

Worn Joints

People’s neck joints wear with age but wear and tear can occur more quickly with intense use. Worn joints in your neck can cause bone spurs, resulting in pain or stiffness.

Nerve Compression

Herniated disks or bone spurs in the neck vertebrae can press on the nerves branching out from the spinal cord, causing pain.

Injury

Car wrecks are the most common cause of neck injuries, but you can get whiplash that strains the soft tissue in your neck in many ways. Other accidents during combat and training may also have affected your neck.

Disease

Certain diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis or cancer, can cause neck pain. If these diseases are service-connected, you could be owed additional compensation for your neck pain on a secondary basis.

Severe neck pain can cause extreme instability, headaches, chest pressure or pain, and swollen glands, among other symptoms. If left untreated, neck pain may worsen. You may want to see a doctor if you have severe chronic neck pain that results in you being unable to sit still or having shooting pain down your body. You may also want to see a doctor if you believe your neck pain is tied to another service-connected health issue.

What is “military neck”?

Military neck is a common name for cervical kyphosis. It’s called “military neck” because an injury to the upper part of the spine causes the person to look like they’re standing at attention.

Although military neck is not a condition limited to the military, many veterans may have developed this ailment while serving.

Military neck can result from degenerative disc disease, a birth defect, a spinal injury, or surgery. If left untreated, military neck can cause severe issues, including weakness in the arms or legs, loss of bladder control, and paralysis.

What is the neck pain VA rating?

If your neck pain is caused by a service-connected condition like arthritis or spinal stenosis, you will most likely already have symptoms, including pain, combined under the diagnostic code for that condition. However, veterans experiencing pain with no formal diagnosis of a related condition can still receive VA disability benefits.

If your neck pain is not tied to a diagnosed condition but is service-connected, you are eligible for VA benefits under the rules on painful motion and functional loss.

An example of where these rules might apply is a veteran who experienced a neck injury in service. The neck injury may now be healed, but pain and stiffness continue. The veteran experiences “functional loss” of their neck because moving it is painful and difficult. A situation like this can warrant a neck pain VA rating.

The neck pain VA rating you receive would depend on the functional loss due to the pain or limited range of motion. Most often, the pain affects the range of motion in the neck. We will explain these ratings more below.

How does the VA rate limited range of motion in the neck?

Veterans can receive VA disability benefits for neck pain and limited range of motion in the neck caused or worsened by military service.

Neck pain and limited neck motion are rated using the General Rating Formula for Diseases and Injuries of the Spine in the Schedule of Ratings. The ratings consider ankylosis, or forward flexion, which is how far you can bend the neck forward.

Neck pain can be rated between 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, or 100%, depending on mobility or pain.

Description

VA Rating
Unfavorable ankylosis
100%
Unfavorable ankylosis of the entire thoracolumbar spine
50%
Unfavorable ankylosis of the entire cervical spine OR
Forward flexion of the thoracolumbar spine 30 degrees or less OR
Favorable ankylosis of the entire thoracolumbar spine
40%
Forward flexion of the cervical spine 15 degrees or less OR
Favorable ankylosis of the entire cervical spine
30%
Forward flexion of the thoracolumbar spine greater than 30 degrees but not greater than 60 degrees OR the following:
Forward flexion of the cervical spine greater than 15 degrees but not greater than 30 degrees
The combined range of motion of the thoracolumbar spine but not greater than 120 degrees
A combined range of motion of the cervical spine not greater than 170 degrees
Muscle spasm or guarding severe enough to result in an abnormal gait or abnormal spinal contour (i.e. scoliosis, etc.)
20%
Forward flexion of the thoracolumbar spine greater than 60 degrees but not greater than 85 degrees OR the following:
Forward flexion of the cervical spine greater than 30 degrees but not greater than 40 degrees
Combined range of motion of the thoracolumbar spine greater than 120 degrees but not greater than 170 degrees but not greater than 335 degrees
Muscle spasm, guarding or localized tenderness not affecting gait or spinal contour
Vertebral body fracture with loss of 50% or more of height
10%

Conditions that cause neck pain that are eligible for VA disability

Various conditions cause neck pain and range of motion issues, making them eligible for VA disability. Here’s a look at some of the most common conditions that result in neck pain or stiffness.

Neck pain and arthritis

A neck injury from your time in the military can now cause pain from the advancement of arthritis in the neck. Arthritis in your neck can spread and affect other parts of your body and limit your range of motion in the affected joints.

In addition to arthritis, other conditions can cause neck pain. For example, some veterans grow bone spurs that cause enlargement of the joints. Bone spurs become more common as veterans age. Veterans with cervical bone spurs may have neck pain and weakness that radiates into the arms and shoulders.

Spinal stenosis is a specific, but not uncommon, cervical and thoracolumbar spinal condition. As arthritis develops, the spinal canal may narrow, pinching the spinal cord or the nerves around it, which can cause neck pain. Spinal stenosis VA disability benefits are also available to veterans.

Neck pain stiffness and injuries during service

Neck pain can result from various types of injuries that happen during service. As previously noted, car wrecks are the most common cause of neck injuries. Impacts with other vehicles, driving into holes, explosions, off-road hazards, and other types of injuries during service can cause injuries resulting in neck pain and stiffness.

Radiculopathy due to a compressed nerve in the cervical spine can leave veterans with numbness, weakness, tingling in the shoulders, or progress along the entire arm and into the hand or fingers. Many veterans with cervical radiculopathy experience degenerative changes in their spine that cause a herniated, bulging disc, or degenerative disc disease that pushes on a nerve, causing neck pain.

VA disability lawyer Cecilia Ton said radiculopathy is a common issue among veterans.

“Common neurologic disabilities that we see here are radiculopathy, which is pain or numbness and tingling that starts in the back or neck and radiates elsewhere, often the lower extremities or the hands and fingers,” Ton said.

While radiculopathy can be caused by cervical spine problems, it can also be a sign of something more serious.

C&P exams for neck pain

The VA may require you to complete a compensation and pension exam, more commonly known as simply a C&P exam or a VA claim exam, to assess your condition. A medical professional will ask you questions about the condition and what caused it. They also are likely to perform a physical examination, including testing the range of motion in your neck and finding pain points.

Be sure the doctor understands all of your symptoms that may be related to your neck pain. For example, neck pain can cause migraines or be related to back pain. Share any symptoms you have with the examiner and any other diagnoses you may have, even if you don’t think they’re related to neck pain.

Neck pain and VA unemployability benefits

Veterans who experience neck pain and stiffness may be eligible for total disability based on individual unemployability (TDIU) for their cervical conditions, or in combination with other service-connected conditions.

Having a limited range of motion in the neck can cause most manual jobs to be difficult, but this pain and stiffness may also make it impossible to sit at a computer or work a desk job answering phones all day. Your pain may also affect your sleep and mood, making work even more difficult.

Veterans who can’t hold down a steady job that supports them financially (known as substantially gainful employment) because of their service-connected disabilities are eligible for TDIU if they have:

1

At least one service-connected disability rated at 60% or more disabling OR

2

Two or more service-connected disabilities with at least one rated at 40% or more disabling and a combined rating of 70% or more

How our VA-accredited attorneys can help

If you experience service-connected neck pain and stiffness that affects your ability to live and work comfortably, you deserve VA disability compensation. Contact VA Benefits today for a free consultation to see how we can help. You only pay us if we win.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Yes. Ischemic heart disease, also known as coronary artery disease, is a type of arteriosclerotic heart disease. Ischemic heart disease is a presumptive of Agent Orange exposure for qualifying veterans.

Yes, you can receive VA disability for neck pain, but you must first prove that the pain is related to something that happened during service or that your time in the military exacerbated an existing neck injury.

Neck pain can be rated at 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, or 100%, depending on your range of motion or whether you experience unfavorable or favorable ankylosis of the entire cervical spine