Published September 16, 2026. The benefits-news items below were current as of that date. This is an archived issue of our weekly email — subscribe here to get new issues first.
Two readings down, one to go
BLS published the August CPI-W last Friday, September 11: an index level of 328.481, up 3.5 percent over the last 12 months. That is the second of the three readings — July, August, September — that set the 2027 COLA. (Source: BLS, Consumer Price Index — August 2026, USDL-26-1496.)
The third reading publishes Wednesday, October 14. Until it is out, every “2027 COLA” figure in circulation is a projection, not a rate.
Friday’s number does not change your September or October check. A COLA takes effect December 1 and first appears in the payment that arrives in January — the same month as the CRDP/CRSC election window.
One structural point worth knowing: the Social Security COLA is automatic under permanent law. The VA disability rate increase is not — it runs on a bill Congress passes each year. This year that is S. 4487, which would raise VA compensation and DIC rates by the same percentage as Social Security effective December 1, 2026. Introduced May 11, it is still in the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. (Source: Congress.gov, S.4487, 119th Congress.)
Bottom line: nothing to do this week. Two numbers are in, the third lands October 14, and no check changes before January. If a rate change would move your CRDP-versus-CRSC math, run your numbers through the calculator.
The comment window on the shorter 526EZ closes October 9
VA’s shortened disability application is now at OMB. The Federal Register notice confirms the figures: VA Form 21-526EZ drops from 15 pages to 5, with the estimated time to complete it falling from 25 minutes to 15. The public comment period closes October 9, 2026. (Source: 91 FR 57451, OMB Control No. 2900-0747, published September 9, 2026.)
VA estimates roughly two million people file this form each year, and as of this week the docket showed only a handful of public comments. The window is open and it is not crowded.
The current form is still the one to use. But fewer pages means fewer places to explain yourself — which leads straight into this week’s mistake.
Assuming a VA rating proves a combat nexus
The VA claim and the CRSC packet answer two different questions. VA decides how disabling a condition is and whether it connects to service. Your branch CRSC board decides how it happened — whether the disability is combat-related under the statute: armed conflict, hazardous service, an instrumentality of war, or conditions simulating war. A VA grant establishes service connection. It does not, by itself, establish a combat nexus.
Here is how the gap opens. A veteran describes an injury in the thinnest way that will still get it service-connected — a diagnosis, a date, a box checked — because that is all the rating needed. Years later the CRSC packet is built from that same record, and nothing in it places the condition at a qualifying event. The rating is solid. The causation file is empty.
A five-page form leaves less room to tell that story. Tell it anyway — in the narrative fields, in a personal statement, in buddy statements, in what the treatment record says about how you got hurt.
This week, read past the percentage on your most recent VA decision letter.
Go to the evidence and reasons section, not the summary page. Ask one question of each rated condition: does this document say how it started? Not that it is service-connected — how it began, and where.
If what you find is a diagnosis and a date with no event behind it, that is the gap a CRSC packet has to close. Far easier to close now, with records you can still get, than after a denial.
Want a second set of eyes on where your file stands? Book a free 15-minute review — flat fee if you move forward, never a percentage of your back pay.
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