Why VeteranPlug Is Free, Takes No Cases, and Sells No Leads

Most of the money in VA disability claims moves in one direction: from veterans to people selling help with a process that is free to start. This page lays out the law on who may charge, what free help exists, and why VeteranPlug is structured to sell you nothing. Every legal citation below was read against its primary source on July 9, 2026, with the sources listed at the end.

Filing an initial claim is free

You do not pay the VA to file a disability claim, and you do not have to pay anyone to file one for you. The VA’s own get help filing a claim page states plainly that accredited Veterans Service Organization representatives provide their help at no cost. Filing is a form, evidence, and a decision. No fee is required to move any of it.

Who may lawfully charge a fee, and when

The rules on fees are narrow and specific, and they exist because Congress wrote them into statute.

Only accredited agents and attorneys may charge fees. Under 38 CFR 14.636(b), only VA-accredited claims agents and attorneys may receive fees from a claimant for their services. Accredited Veterans Service Organization representatives, the people most veterans work with, serve without charging you.

No one may charge for an initial claim before a decision. This is the part predatory outfits work around. 38 USC 5904(c)(1) says a fee “may not be charged, allowed, or paid for services” provided before the date a claimant is given notice of the agency of original jurisdiction’s initial decision. In plain terms: an accredited agent or attorney can be paid to help you appeal or supplement a decision you already received, not to file your first claim. The implementing regulation, 38 CFR 14.636(c), carries the same timing rule.

Even a lawful fee is capped by a reasonableness standard. 38 CFR 14.636(f) presumes a fee of 20 percent or less of your past-due benefits to be reasonable, and presumes a fee above 33 and one-third percent to be unreasonable. A charge of several times your award, which is the model behind the recent enforcement cases below, sits far outside that.

The free help that exists

You have real options, and none of them bill you.

• VA-accredited representatives. VA runs an official accredited representative search that lists VSO representatives, accredited attorneys, and accredited claims agents, along with their accreditation status. This is also where you confirm whether anyone offering to help is actually accredited.
• Veterans Service Organizations. Groups such as the Disabled American Veterans assign accredited representatives to help you prepare and file at no cost.
• County and state veteran service officers. Most states and counties employ veteran service officers who are accredited through a state department of veterans affairs and help residents file for free. Your state veterans agency can point you to the nearest office.

For choosing among the review paths after a decision, see our guide on VA decision reviews and appeals. A free accredited representative can do all of it.

The paid-claim-help problem driving federal action

None of this is theoretical. A stretch of reporting and litigation over the past year has put the fee-charging industry under real scrutiny. What follows is verified, and stated without exaggeration.

A criminal penalty was removed in 2006. For most of the program’s history, charging an unauthorized fee for claim help was a crime. The Veterans Benefits, Health Care, and Information Technology Act of 2006 (Public Law 109-461) struck the language in 38 USC 5905 that had criminalized soliciting, charging, or receiving unauthorized fees. Today that section reaches only someone who wrongfully withholds a benefit from a claimant, not someone who overcharges for claim help. That gap is what advocates call the loophole.

A bill would restore the criminal penalty. The GUARD VA Benefits Act (H.R. 1732), whose name stands for Governing Unaccredited Representatives Defrauding VA Benefits, was introduced on February 27, 2025 by Representative Chris Pappas of New Hampshire in the 119th Congress. It would reinstate criminal penalties against people who charge veterans unauthorized fees for claim help. As of July 9, 2026 the bill has been introduced and referred to committee. It has not passed the House or been enacted (GovTrack status: Introduced).

Trajector Medical. In reporting published December 2, 2025, NPR documented that Trajector, an unaccredited company, charges veterans a fee equal to five times the first month’s increase in their disability benefits, producing bills that reach five figures, and that the VA had warned the company its fee-charging may be unlawful while it continued operating.

Veterans Guardian. In a ruling issued in May 2026, U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles of the Middle District of North Carolina found that Veterans Guardian, an unaccredited company, acted as an “agent” preparing and presenting VA claims for a fee in violation of federal law. The decision described one veteran charged $21,360 on a single successful claim.

This is not an argument that every paid representative is predatory. An accredited attorney or agent, charging a lawful fee after a decision, is a legitimate and sometimes worthwhile choice on a hard appeal. The pattern under federal scrutiny is narrower: unaccredited outfits charging for initial-claim work, charging before any decision exists, and charging multiples of an award that no accreditation rule would permit. If you are considering paid help, the safe first step is to check the person against VA’s accreditation search.

What VeteranPlug is, and is not

VeteranPlug is a reference. It exists so a veteran can look up a rating criterion, run the combined-rating math, or check a rate table against the primary source, without wondering what the site is trying to sell.

• It sells nothing, prepares no claims, and represents no one. We are not a claims company and never will be. See what this site will never do.
• It captures no leads. There is no intake form that routes you to a paid representative, because the numbers here are not bait for a referral.
• It takes no cases. If you need a representative, the right move is a free accredited one, not us.
• It is not affiliated with the VA. We link to VA and the regulations so you can verify everything yourself.

The reason to state all of this on its own page is simple. When a site both explains your rating and profits from steering you somewhere, you can never fully trust the explanation. VeteranPlug removes that conflict by removing the sale. If a number here is wrong, tell us, because our only product is whether the numbers are right.

Primary sources, verified July 9, 2026

• 38 USC 5904, recognition of and fees for agents and attorneys, including the fee-timing rule in subsection (c). Cornell Legal Information Institute, retrieved July 9, 2026.
• 38 USC 5905, current penalty text, showing the removal of the unauthorized-fee criminal provision. Cornell Legal Information Institute, retrieved July 9, 2026.
• 38 CFR 14.636, payment of fees, including who may charge, the timing rule, and the reasonableness presumptions. Cornell Legal Information Institute, retrieved July 9, 2026.
• GUARD VA Benefits Act, H.R. 1732, 119th Congress. Status confirmed via GovTrack (Introduced, introduced February 27, 2025), retrieved July 9, 2026.
• NPR, “This company charges disabled vets millions, even after VA said it’s likely illegal,” December 2, 2025, retrieved July 9, 2026.
• Task and Purpose, coverage of the Veterans Guardian ruling, May 2026, retrieved July 9, 2026.
• VA accredited representative search and VA get help filing a claim, retrieved July 9, 2026.