What is a Secondary Service Connected Condition

Service connection is a necessary aspect of proving your disability claim. This means that you must show that a disability arose from an event or injury that occurred during service. Secondary service connection is when a condition arises from another disability that is already service connected.

You will need to have medical evidence of the existence of the secondary condition, as well as a medical opinion supporting your claim that the secondary condition was caused or worsened by the service-connected disability. To prevail in this regard you must have strong medical evidence linking the current disability to another disability that is already service connected.

An example of how this works is as follows: assume that a veteran is service connected for degenerative disc disease and rated at 30%. The veteran’s life is impacted by the disability in that he/she can no longer do the things that he/she used to do. This leads to the veteran falling into a depression. The depression is a secondary service connected condition.

Contact the Vet Defender for more information on how to develop your secondary service connected disabilities. You can schedule an appointment with Vet Defender by clicking on this link: Schedule an Appointment.