The next three months carry more fixed dates than most years do, and several of them affect money. Rather than cover each one again as it arrives, this is the calendar in one place, with what each date decides and what, if anything, to do before it.
Monday, October 5: the Supreme Court hears the jurisdiction case

Argument in
the case over which courthouse veterans can use is set for Monday. The question,
as AARP's preview lays it out, is whether federal district courts can hear constitutional challenges to veterans' benefits statutes, or whether those challenges have to run through the VA and the Veterans Court. A decision typically follows by late spring.
Nothing to do before it, and nothing changes for any pending claim. It's worth following because the ruling shapes how the next generation of challenges to benefits rules gets brought.
Mid-October: the 2027 COLA figure
The Social Security Administration announces the cost-of-living adjustment once September's inflation data is in, usually around the middle of the month. The VA applies the same percentage to compensation, pension, DIC, and SMC, effective December 1 and visible in the payment at the end of December. Projections have clustered between the high threes and the mid fours; the official number is the only one that counts.
Nothing to file. The adjustment is automatic, which also means any message telling you to apply, verify, or pay to receive it is a scam.
October through November: the rating rewrite with no date
The VA told Congress it expected to finalize the rewritten respiratory and auditory rating rules, the ones covering sleep apnea and tinnitus, by September 30. That date passed without a final rule, and
the department told Newsweek no changes are planned or imminent. The committee overseeing it expects the end of 2026 or early 2027 at the earliest;
our earlier coverage has the full background.
What to do: if you have a documented condition in either body system and haven't filed, the current criteria are still the criteria. Every week of delay on the rule is a week you could be filing under rules you understand.
Pending: Freund final approval
The settlement reopening tens of thousands of wrongly closed legacy appeals went to a fairness hearing in August, with
more than 90,000 veterans and survivors covered. Final approval starts two clocks: the VA's window to finish auditing the flagged files, and the roughly one-year window for veterans who weren't captured in the audit to come forward on their own.
What to do: if you filed a legacy appeal before 2019 and never got an answer, don't wait for approval to start pulling your file. Knowing what you filed, and when, is the preparation that makes the one-year window usable.
December 31: the Gulf War presumptive window
Under current regulations, qualifying Gulf War undiagnosed illnesses must be manifest to a compensable degree
by December 31, 2026. The rule has been extended before and may be again. Nobody has announced an extension.
What to do: this one has a to-do list, and it's medical before it's legal. If you served in Southwest Asia or Afghanistan and carry unexplained chronic symptoms, get them documented by a provider before the year ends. Records created now establish what records created in January can't.
The one thing all five share
None of them require guessing. The argument has a date, the COLA has a release schedule, the rewrite has an official status, the settlement has a process, and the Gulf War rule has a regulation with a year in it. The veterans who come out ahead on fixed dates are the ones who treat them as fixed, which mostly means filing, documenting, or pulling records now rather than after the date confirms what everyone already knew.
Where we come in
We're a veteran-led firm, and a surprising amount of our work is calendar work: deadlines that passed unnoticed, windows that closed, dates that should have been earlier. If any of the five above touches your situation,
reach out
and let's get ahead of it.
