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Benefits Navigator

How we research, cite, and update VBN

Based on VBN content is built from primary federal sources (38 U.S.C., 38 CFR, VA.gov, public laws) with VSO/CVSO field practice as the editorial frame. This page is a free community resource. We are not VA-accredited and do not file claims or provide legal advice (per 38 U.S.C. § 5904).

Last reviewed: April 2026 · Next review: October 2026

Maintained by: Veterans Benefits Navigator editorial team. Every citation links to a primary federal or state source. See editorial standards and our privacy posture.

This page is the audit trail for everything else on the site. If you want to know whether you can trust a number, a deadline, or a piece of advice on VBN, this is how we got there.

How we research

Every substantive page begins with the controlling statute or regulation, not with a third-party summary. The order of authority we follow:

  1. The United States Code, primarily Title 38, read in the annotated form published by Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute.
  2. The Code of Federal Regulations, primarily 38 CFR, read from the current version on the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR).
  3. VA.gov official pages, including the M21-1 Adjudication Procedures Manual where it clarifies how VA applies a regulation in practice.
  4. Public laws when a statute has materially changed eligibility (for example, the PACT Act, Pub. L. 117-168).
  5. Board of Veterans' Appeals and Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims precedent for narrow, interpretation-heavy topics like effective dates, TDIU, and Special Monthly Compensation.

Secondary sources (third-party explainers, blog posts) are read for context and for the questions veterans actually ask, but no number, deadline, or eligibility rule on VBN derives from a secondary source alone.

How we cite

Citations live in two places on every content page:

  • Inline, through the <Cite> component, which links a specific phrase in the prose to the primary source (e.g., "under 38 CFR § 4.25" links to the eCFR section).
  • Top-of-page,in the "Primary sources" line of the "Based on" box, so a reader can audit the page without scrolling through prose.

For data files (compensation rates, secondary-condition links, presumptive lists) the citation lives in the source file as a comment, e.g. // 38 CFR § 4.25, near the constant it justifies. A repo-level lint script flags numeric thresholds that lack a statute comment.

How we update

Each page carries a datePublished and a dateModified in the central page registry. The dateModifiedis bumped only when we make a substantive change. Typo and CSS tweaks do not count, because inflating "last reviewed" for cosmetic edits is a quiet trust violation.

Substantive triggers we watch:

  • Annual VA cost-of-living adjustments (December for the following calendar year).
  • Amendments to 38 CFR or 38 U.S.C. that change a rate, a threshold, or a presumptive list.
  • New public laws (PACT Act-class changes) that create or expand benefits.
  • CAVC or BVA precedential decisions that change how a regulation is applied in practice.
  • Reader corrections that catch a mistake we made.

Substantive corrections are recorded in the public corrections log.

What we link to

Links from VBN go to one of three categories of source:

  • Primary federal sources (eCFR, Cornell LII, VA.gov, congress.gov, dol.gov for USERRA, etc.). These are the ones a CVSO would point at in a meeting.
  • Official state veterans-affairs departments for state-specific benefits. We do not cite county tax assessors or unofficial summaries; the state department is the authoritative starting point.
  • Established nonprofit veteran service organizations (VFW, DAV, American Legion, AMVETS, PVA, etc.) where their page is the practical access point for a service.

We do not link to for-profit claim-prep companies, lead generators, or referral networks. We do not accept paid placements.

What we do not claim

Every page on VBN operates inside a deliberate set of bright lines. We do not:

  • Tell a veteran what their rating will be. VA decides ratings on the full record. Our estimators show the math under 38 CFR Part 4 and label every output as an estimate.
  • Diagnose, screen, or score mental-health conditions. Our mental-health pages route to crisis resources and to clinical care, not to scoring instruments.
  • File claims, prepare forms, or submit anything to VA on a veteran's behalf. Representation before VA is restricted by 38 U.S.C. § 5904 to accredited VSOs, claims agents, and attorneys, and we are not accredited.
  • Provide individualized legal or medical advice. Where the facts of a single veteran's case matter, we say so and point to a CVSO, VSO, or accredited attorney.

How to audit us

The site is open source. The repo URL is in the footer. If you spot a number that doesn't match the current 38 CFR section, or a deadline that's based on a stale rule, the Report an error link in the footer opens a GitHub issue prefilled with the page URL. We do not require an account or any contact information to file.