Flat Feet VA Rating: Arches, Heels and Boots

Flat feet (pes planus, code 5276) are scored on what the examiner can see and feel: where your weight lands when you stand, whether the Achilles tendon bows inward, how tender the soles are, and whether swelling and calluses show up with use. A central question is whether arch supports or built-up shoes actually fix the problem.

Plantar fasciitis (code 5269) works on a different idea. It got its own code in February 2021, and the rating turns on treatment history: have stretching, splints, injections, orthotics and surgery failed to give you relief?

Plenty of veterans have both. Whether the VA can rate both depends on overlap, because 38 CFR 4.14 bars paying twice for the same symptom. When each condition shows its own findings, separate ratings are possible. When the evidence describes one blended picture of foot pain, expect a single rating under whichever code fits better.

For a sense of scale, at 2026 rates a 10% rating pays $180.42 a month and 30% pays $552.47 for a veteran with no dependents. A few habits help the exam reflect your feet accurately:

• Wear or bring the shoes and inserts you use every day, and say plainly whether they help, help a little or don't help.
• Describe swelling and pain after a shift on your feet, since the examiner may see you rested.
• Point out calluses and where they form. They're one of the physical signs the higher levels look for.

Read that table closely and the evidence you need becomes clear: a treatment timeline. Physical therapy, night splints, steroid injections, custom orthotics, and any surgery or surgical consult belong in your file, along with notes on how each one turned out.

Two exceptions matter. If a surgeon recommended an operation but you aren't a surgical candidate, for example because of another health problem, the VA applies the 20% or 30% level that fits. And if the foot has lost all useful function, the rating is 40%.

Military entrance exams catch a lot of flat arches, and many veterans find "pes planus, asymptomatic" written on their intake physical. That note changes the route to service connection, and the claim can still succeed.

If your entry exam said nothing about your feet, the law presumes you entered service sound. To deny on the theory that the condition came first, the VA needs clear and unmistakable evidence both that it existed before service and that service didn't make it worse.

If flat feet were noted at entry, the claim becomes one of aggravation under 38 CFR 3.306. Show that the condition got worse during service, and the VA presumes service caused the worsening unless clear and unmistakable evidence shows it was only the natural progress of the condition. Sick call visits for foot pain, profiles, issued inserts and a separation exam describing symptoms all help, and so does a buddy statement about the marches and long hours on concrete.

One wrinkle: in an aggravation claim, 38 CFR 4.22 subtracts whatever level of disability you entered with. Mild flat feet that caused no symptoms at entry generally equal 0% on the table, so there is often nothing to subtract.

Feet that roll inward or hurt with every step push the work up the leg. With a doctor's opinion explaining how, knee, hip and lower back problems can be rated as secondary to service-connected flat feet or plantar fasciitis. The knee and back guides explain how those joints are measured.

The math can help, too. When compensable ratings affect both legs, the bilateral factor applies even if the problems sit in different places. The rating schedule's own example in 38 CFR 4.26 pairs a disability of the right thigh with flat feet on the left.