Social Security announced a 3.6 percent cost-of-living raise for 2027 on October 14, but VA disability checks do not get that raise until Congress acts. The increase reaches veterans only if lawmakers pass the annual Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act, and the Senate version, S. 4487, is still listed as introduced in its official summary. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas filed it on May 11 with 15 original cosponsors. The bill ties the VA raise to the Social Security percentage effective December 1, 2026, which leaves less than seven weeks for a vote.
Anyone who receives VA disability compensation falls under the bill, along with surviving spouses and children who receive dependency and indemnity compensation, known as DIC, and veterans who get the clothing allowance or added pay for dependents. For each of them the question is when a new amount can arrive, and the answer depends on a vote that has not happened in either chamber. Social Security recipients face no such wait, since the agency has said its higher checks begin in January 2027 under the cost-of-living adjustment it announced.
A raise stuck in committee does nothing for a wartime veteran or widow with limited income, and the VA pension is a different benefit with its own application. The Veterans Benefits Action Kit lays out the three VA pension levels including Aid & Attendance and how to file for free with VA Form 21P-527EZ.
See the three VA pension levels while the raise waits, in the Veterans Benefits Action Kit →
What S. 4487 would order VA to pay
The bill’s official summary on GovInfo says VA must raise wartime disability compensation, additional compensation for dependents, the clothing allowance for certain disabled veterans, and DIC for surviving spouses and children. Each increase has to match the percentage of the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment that takes effect December 1, 2026. VA must then publish the new amounts in the Federal Register. With Social Security now at 3.6 percent, that is the figure the bill would carry over to VA.
VA’s own rates page lists the current monthly amounts, in effect since December 1, 2025: $180.42 for a veteran alone rated 10 percent disabled and $3,938.58 at 100 percent. The page says VA is required by law to match the percentage of cost-of-living adjustments made to Social Security benefits, and it lists no 2027 table yet. Simple arithmetic on those two rates gives about $6.50 more a month at the lowest rating and about $142 more at the top, though the final amounts would come from the department.
The Social Security side is settled. Commissioner Frank Bisignano said in the agency’s October 14 announcement that “Social Security will implement this cost-of-living adjustment for 76 million Americans,” with higher Social Security benefits beginning in January 2027 and SSI payments rising on December 31, 2026. None of that announcement covers VA compensation, which runs on its own legal track and needs its own act of Congress.
Where the Senate bill stands
The bill’s status record on GovInfo shows two entries, both dated May 11, 2026: introduced in the Senate, then read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. The record lists no hearing, no markup and no committee vote since. It names Moran as sponsor and counts 15 cosponsors, all of them original. Introduced is the earliest stage a bill can hold in the Senate, and the summary’s last update was May 18.
A companion bill in the House has moved a little further. H.R. 8552, introduced April 28 by Rep. Morgan Luttrell of Texas, was forwarded by a subcommittee to the full House Veterans’ Affairs Committee by voice vote on June 30, according to its GovInfo status file, last updated September 19. That is a committee step, not a House vote. Neither chamber has passed either bill, and the House file lists no later action on the measure.
The calendar adds pressure. The summary ties the matching percentage to the cost-of-living adjustment effective December 1, 2026, and that date is now less than seven weeks away. Neither status record shows a hearing or markup scheduled before then. Until one of the two bills becomes law, VA’s published rate tables stay where they have been since December 2025, and a 3.6 percent increase exists only as a Social Security number.
How last year’s raise got through
The same annual bill cleared Congress late last year. The president signed S. 2392, the Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2025, on November 25, 2025, six days before its December 1 start. It carried a 2.8 percent increase and was sponsored by Moran, who said at the time that veterans and their families “deserve peace of mind knowing their VA benefits will keep pace with changes in our economy.”
That timeline is the closest precedent for this fall. Last year’s final signature came in the last week of November, with the Social Security percentage already public, and the 2026 bill now sits in the same position with a 3.6 percent figure announced and no committee action recorded. The bill’s own text, not the Social Security announcement, is what would put the number into VA’s tables.
Finding the new VA amounts once a bill moves
VA publishes the monthly rate tables on its compensation rates page, and that page is where new amounts would appear after a bill becomes law. For now it shows the December 2025 rates. A veteran who wants a rough dollar effect of 3.6 percent before then can multiply the current table figure by 1.036, keeping in mind that VA, not that estimate, sets the final payment.
Disability compensation is only one VA benefit. Wartime veterans and surviving spouses with limited income may be able to apply for the separate VA pension, which does not run through the cost-of-living bill. The pension has three levels, with Aid & Attendance the highest, and applications go on VA Form 21P-527EZ. The bill covers only compensation, additional pay for dependents, the clothing allowance and DIC.
The open point is timing. Moran’s bill has sat in the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee since May 11, the House version has not left its full committee since June 30, and the percentage both would apply is now known. Veterans on compensation and survivors on DIC are waiting on a vote that no published schedule has set, with December 1 as the date written into the bill.
A 3.6% VA raise still waiting on a Senate committee
Last year’s veterans’ raise was signed six days before it took effect, and this year’s bill has not moved past committee since May 11. The Veterans Benefits Action Kit covers the track that does not depend on that vote, with the three VA pension levels including Aid & Attendance and how to file for free with VA Form 21P-527EZ, written for wartime veterans and widows with limited income.
Get the free-filing walkthrough for the VA pension in the Veterans Benefits Action Kit →
This article was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed against the cited public sources.
