Published August 5, 2026. The benefits-news items below were current as of that date; projections were projections when written. This is an archived issue of our weekly email — subscribe here to get new issues first.
The 2027 COLA is being measured right now
By law, the annual cost-of-living adjustment is set from the CPI-W for July, August, and September. July is the first of those three months, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the July CPI on Wednesday, August 12. Two more readings follow, and the final figure is announced in mid-October.
Where it stands today: the Senior Citizens League's model currently projects a 3.8% COLA for 2027, compared with the 2.8% that took effect this past January. That is a projection, not a rate. It has moved before, and it will move again before October. (Sources: BLS CPI release schedule, 2026; The Senior Citizens League COLA Watch, updated July 14, 2026.)
Why this reaches past Social Security. The same CPI-W figure drives VA disability compensation and military retired pay. Because CRSC is paid against the retired pay you waive in order to receive VA compensation, it tracks that same adjustment — and for Chapter 61 retirees, so does the longevity-based ceiling that caps what CRSC can pay.
Bottom line: the number is not final until October, so treat every projection you see between now and then as a forecast. If you have never seen how the Chapter 61 cap works against your own numbers, that part you can check today — run them on the CRSC calculator.
The PACT Act turns four on August 10 — read your effective dates
VA has said it considers the PACT Act's presumptive conditions applicable as of the day the law was signed, August 10, 2022. The effective date on any individual award still turns on your own filing history and the rules that apply to your claim — which is exactly why it is worth reading the effective date printed next to each condition rather than assuming it matches the day you filed.
Here is the part most retirees miss. Under DoD's CRSC program guidance, conditions the VA granted on a presumptive basis — Agent Orange, Gulf War, radiation, POW, mustard gas — are generally presumed combat-related for CRSC purposes absent documentary information to the contrary. Hypertension and MGUS became Agent Orange presumptives under the PACT Act. A Vietnam-era retiree carrying a hypertension rating he never thought of as combat-related may be holding a condition worth claiming. (Sources: VA, “The PACT Act and your VA benefits”; DoD CRSC Program Guidance.)
Your branch's CRSC board still makes that determination — a presumption is a starting position, not an award.
Answering a CRSC board with statements instead of records
The standard the boards apply says it plainly: quality of information matters more than quantity, and an uncorroborated statement will not, by itself, be considered determinative.
Packets still arrive stuffed with buddy letters, a private physician's opinion, and several hundred pages of VA medical records — and light on the document that actually decides the case: the service treatment record from the time of the injury, stating how the injury happened. Statements can point to the record. They cannot stand in for it. A thick envelope is not a strong packet, and volume has never persuaded a board that a thin record could not.
Call VA at 800-827-1000 and request your VA disability breakdown letter. It lists every service-connected condition, its percentage, and its effective date in one place — which is what both of this week's items turn on: whether a presumptive grant carries an earlier effective date than you assumed, and what your CRSC math is actually running on.
One note that saves a phone call: ask for the “breakdown letter.” Asking for a “code sheet” tends to go nowhere with the folks answering that line.
Once it is in hand and you want a second set of eyes on it, book a free 15-minute CRSC review.
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