Information verified through October 1, 2026.
The short answer. Yes, hearing loss and tinnitus can qualify for Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC), the tax-free payment for VA-rated disabilities that your military department finds are combat-related. But “I spent twenty years around loud equipment” is not what gets these claims approved. The record has to tie the condition to one of the statutory categories, and for noise conditions the evidence that usually decides it is a specific documented event or a documented pattern of combat-related noise, plus proof the condition showed up while you were still in uniform.
Key takeaways
- The VA rating is only the entry ticket. The condition must be compensable under VA law and your branch must find it combat-related under 10 U.S.C. § 1413a(e).
- Events beat exposure. A documented blast, weapons discharge, or combat noise event is a far stronger basis than general career noise.
- Timing matters. An in-service audiogram or treatment entry showing the condition while you served can decide the claim.
- Tinnitus pays at the 10 percent VA rate ($180.42 a month at 2026 rates), so it is a modest line item, but the same evidence often supports other conditions from the same event.
- The proposed VA tinnitus rating change is not law. The 10 percent rating remains in effect.
Why hearing loss and tinnitus get their own guide
Hearing loss and tinnitus are two of the most familiar service-connected conditions, and many military retirees already hold one or both. That makes them an easy place for a retiree to assume CRSC “obviously” applies, and an easy place for a claim to be denied. A CRSC board does not ask whether your hearing is damaged. VA already answered that. It asks how the damage happened, and whether the answer fits one of the categories Congress wrote into the statute.
If you want the full picture of the program first, start with CRSC for Dummies. If you want the category-by-category framework, read why CRSC claims get denied. This guide is the noise-specific version.
What the law actually requires
Under 10 U.S.C. § 1413a(e), a “combat-related disability” is one that is compensable under VA law and either results from an injury for which you received the Purple Heart, or was incurred in one of four ways: as a direct result of armed conflict, while engaged in hazardous service, in the performance of duty under conditions simulating war, or through an instrumentality of war.
For noise conditions, that sorts into a few practical routes:
Armed conflict
Hearing loss or tinnitus tied to a documented combat event: an IED or rocket attack, indirect fire, a firefight, a convoy ambush. This is usually the cleanest route when the event is in your records. See our guide to what proves “direct result of armed conflict.”
Instrumentality of war
Damage caused by a military weapon, ordnance, combat vehicle, or military aircraft. The DoD CRSC program guidance defines an instrumentality of war as “a vehicle, vessel, or device designed primarily for Military Service,” and requires a direct causal relationship between that equipment and the disability. A premature detonation or an uncontrolled discharge fits. Our instrumentality of war examples go through the line between cause and setting.
Duty under conditions simulating war
Live-fire exercises and realistic training with live ordnance can fit here when the record documents the exercise and the exposure. Routine range qualification is a harder argument than a documented large-scale exercise. We cover that boundary in CRSC and training that simulates war.
Hazardous service
Hazardous duties such as demolition, explosive ordnance disposal, or aviation-related service can carry noise exposure that is part of the hazard. See hazardous duty CRSC.
Why “years of noise” usually fails
Boards decide on the preponderance of the documentary record, and the DoD guidance says quality of information is more important than quantity and that an uncorroborated statement alone will not be considered determinative. Gradual exposure from ordinary duty has no single moment a board can point to. It looks like the cumulative-use arguments boards routinely decline in other conditions, and it is hard to distinguish from the noise any member of a similar unit would have had.
That is not the same as saying noise claims cannot win. It means the claim has to be built on something the record can corroborate.
What a stronger noise claim looks like
One Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records decision, BC-2019-03955, quotes the Air Force’s own standard for tinnitus in a CRSC case: tinnitus “cannot be considered combat-related unless it is incidental to a combat-related event or due to documented, continual, extensive exposure to combat-related noise (i.e., aircraft, weapons fire), and was shown to have manifested while in service.” In that case the board found the applicant’s flying duties were “potentially approvable,” but denied the application because he “did not provide evidence to show that this condition manifested while he was in the service.” The board advised him to submit a retirement physical with an audio exam, or the in-service audio exam closest to his retirement or separation.
We want to be careful about how far to take that. It is one board decision from one service, quoting that service’s standard. Other departments apply their own review procedures, and we have not found a published equivalent that every branch uses. But it shows the two things that recur: the exposure has to be documented and combat-related, and the condition has to appear in the service record.
Three fact patterns, from strongest to weakest
1. A documented event. A service treatment record entry from the time of a blast, an after-action or casualty report, or a Purple Heart award that includes the ear injury. These claims often fit armed conflict directly. If the injury was a Purple Heart injury, the statute gives it its own path. See our guide to the Purple Heart route.
2. Documented continual combat-related noise. Deployment records, a military occupational specialty with documented weapons or aircraft exposure, repeated entries in the record, and an audiogram that shows the change. This is the harder category, and it depends heavily on the branch and the reviewer, so the evidence has to carry it.
3. General noise with no event and no in-service audiogram. A first diagnosis years after separation, a VA decision that connects the condition to “military noise exposure” without detail, and a statement as the only support. This is the pattern we most often see denied. It is not hopeless, but it should not be filed without a plan to strengthen it.
The audiogram question
For noise conditions, the audiogram does more work than almost any other document. Gather the enlistment or entrance audiogram, any periodic hearing conservation program audiograms, deployment-related audiograms, and the separation or retirement exam. A threshold shift you can show happened while you were serving answers the “manifested in service” question without argument. Your VA rating decision will usually list the evidence VA considered; use it as a map to what exists.
What VA rating does this carry, and what is it worth?
VA rates tinnitus at 10 percent under Diagnostic Code 6260, and 10 percent is the most it provides for the condition, whether it affects one ear or both. Hearing loss is rated from audiometric test results under Diagnostic Code 6100, and many ratings are 0 percent, which is noncompensable and does not produce CRSC. At 2026 rates, a 10 percent VA rating is $180.42 a month, and CRSC for a 10 percent combat-related condition is based on that figure. If you have several combat-related conditions, the amount is calculated from the combined picture, and CRSC is also limited to the lesser of that value or the retired pay you waived. There is no CRSC pay chart; our calculation guide explains why, and the CRSC calculator gives a working estimate. Our tinnitus page covers the condition on its own.
The proposed VA tinnitus rating change
VA has proposed changes to how tinnitus is rated, in a rule published on February 15, 2022. We have found no final rule. The 10 percent rating under Diagnostic Code 6260 remains in effect, and we will not describe a change as in effect until VA publishes one. If you are weighing whether to file a tinnitus claim, the proposal is a reason to make sure your records are in order, not a reason to assume anything has changed. Our rating-change status page tracks it.
Back pay on a condition you already hold
A CRSC effective date is set per condition. It is the latest of the first full month after retirement, the first full month after VA service connection for that condition, or January 2008 for medically retired veterans. The Supreme Court’s decision in Soto v. United States (No. 24-320, June 12, 2025) removed the Barring Act six-year limit on retroactive CRSC, and DoD rescinded its temporary application-date limits on May 14, 2026. So a tinnitus or hearing loss rating you have held for years may carry retroactive value if it qualifies. See how effective dates work per condition.
What this means for military retirees
If you receive military retired pay and have a VA waiver, and you hold a compensable hearing loss or tinnitus rating, it is worth asking whether your records contain a combat-related event or documented combat-related exposure. If they do, the condition is worth including in a claim. If they do not, it is better to know that before you file than after a denial. Not every retiree is eligible, and not every noise condition will qualify.
What you should do now
- Pull your VA rating decisions and note the rating and effective date for each ear-related condition.
- Request your full service treatment records and look for entries about hearing, ringing, or an ear injury.
- Collect every audiogram: entrance, periodic, deployment, and separation or retirement.
- Write one sentence for each condition naming the event or the duty and the equipment, for example “ringing in both ears after a mortar impact at the entry point, 2007.”
- Gather corroboration: orders, after-action or incident reports, awards, and buddy statements that point to the records.
- Check your branch’s page for submission details: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps.
Document checklist
DD Form 2860 (signed) · DD-214/215s · VA rating decisions and code sheet · service treatment records · every available audiogram · orders, incident or after-action reports · award documents if applicable · a short written event summary.
Frequently asked questions
Is tinnitus eligible for CRSC?
It can be. Tinnitus is rated by VA at 10 percent under Diagnostic Code 6260, which is a compensable rating, and CRSC can be paid on a compensable VA-rated condition that your branch determines is combat-related. The hard part is the combat-related link, not the rating. A documented blast, weapons-fire, or aircraft-noise history tied to a qualifying category can support it; a general statement of noise exposure over a career usually does not.
Can hearing loss be combat-related for CRSC?
Yes, if the VA rating is compensable and the record ties the hearing loss to a qualifying category. A hearing loss rated 0 percent is noncompensable and does not by itself produce CRSC. Event-based claims, such as a documented explosion or an IED strike, are the strongest. Claims built only on years of ordinary duty noise are the most commonly denied.
What evidence matters most for noise-related CRSC claims?
Time-of-service records. That means the VA rating decision, service treatment records showing the event or the exposure, and audiograms from enlistment, during service, and closest to separation. In one Air Force board decision on a tinnitus claim, the board said the condition had to be shown to have manifested while in service and pointed the applicant to a retirement physical audio exam or the in-service audio exam closest to separation.
Does the proposed VA change to tinnitus ratings affect CRSC?
Not today. VA proposed changes to how tinnitus is rated in a rule published on February 15, 2022. We have found no final rule, and the 10 percent rating under Diagnostic Code 6260 remains the rating in effect. If a rule were ever finalized, CRSC would follow VA's compensation, but we will not describe a change as in effect until VA publishes a final rule.
Can I get back pay for a hearing loss or tinnitus condition?
Possibly. A CRSC effective date is set per condition, and after the Supreme Court's decision in Soto v. United States the old six-year limit on retroactive CRSC no longer applies. The effective date for a condition is the latest of the first full month after retirement, the first full month after VA service connection for that condition, or, for medically retired veterans, January 2008. A long-standing tinnitus or hearing loss rating that was never submitted as combat-related may carry retroactive value.
The bottom line
Hearing loss and tinnitus are legitimate CRSC conditions, but the record, not the rating, decides them. A documented event or documented combat-related exposure, plus an in-service audiogram, is what separates the claims that move forward from the ones that stall. If you have already been denied on a noise condition, see what to do after a denial for insufficient evidence.
Sources
- 10 U.S.C. § 1413a, Combat-related special compensation (subsections (b), (c), (e))
- DoD Combat-Related Special Compensation program guidance, Attachment 1-1, Determinations of Combat-Relatedness
- Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records, Docket BC-2019-03955
- Army Human Resources Command, CRSC benefit page
- NVLSP, Soto v. United States and Retroactive CRSC FAQs
This article is provided for general educational purposes and is not legal advice, financial advice, or a guarantee of CRSC eligibility, approval, effective date, or payment amount. Rules, guidance, and implementation procedures can change. Veterans should verify current requirements with their military department, DFAS, the Department of Veterans Affairs, or an appropriately accredited representative.