Veteran Trust in VA Holds at 80%: What the Data Shows

On Sept. 9, 2026, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) published data claiming that veteran trust in the Department stood at 80.4 percent, marking the fourth consecutive fiscal quarter where it remained above 80 percent.

While these numbers may indicate a general improvement in trust among veterans, it is important to note that they do not measure veteran opinion on the accuracy of VA’s decisions regarding disability claims. Additionally, these figures were not collected by an outside auditor, but instead come from Veterans Signals, VA’s own quarterly survey that recorded the feedback of about 33,000 veterans.

Key points of this article include:

• VA measures veteran trust based on four major metrics: trust, ease, effectiveness, and emotion.
• The released figures show that veteran trust in VA has risen to 80.4 percent, up from 55 percent in 2016.
• Trust in Board of Veterans’ Appeals (BVA) remains fairly low at 57.7 percent, roughly 36 points below outpatient care.

How Does VA Measure Trust Among Veterans?

VA measures veteran trust through Veterans Signals (VSignals), a quarterly survey run by the Veterans Experience Office (VEO). In Q3 of fiscal year 2026, approximately 33,000 veterans responded to this survey. This survey has been run since 2016, when veteran trust was scored at around 55 percent.

According to VA, VSignals uses four key metrics by which it measures veteran perception of VA: trust, ease, effectiveness, and emotion. In the survey, veterans are asked whether they agree with the following statements regarding these metrics:

• Trust – “I trust VA to fulfill our country’s commitment to Veterans.”
• Ease – “It was easy to get the care or service I needed.”
• Effectiveness – “I got the care or service I needed.”
• Emotion – “I felt like a valued customer.”

Once veterans have given their feedback, VA scores their response using a five-point scale and reports the percentage of respondents who either “agreed” or “strongly agreed” with the above statements.

VA also provides multiple more focused surveys to measure veteran satisfaction and experience when it comes to particular VA service areas.

“VA also uses 181 targeted Veteran Signals surveys to measure Veterans’ experience after specific interactions with VA health care, benefits, memorial services, appeals and other programs,” the VA announcement says. “Many of these service-level surveys include written comments, which help VA teams identify specific strengths, respond to concerns and improve Veteran experiences.”

Has Veterans’ Trust in VA Increased?

According to VA’s report, veteran trust has overall had a steady increase since VSignals was first implemented in 2016. However, the four key metrics VA uses to measure trust have each actually seen a minor decrease since last quarter’s report.

These are the key survey metrics for FY2026 Q3 and how they compare to the previous Q2 metrics:

• Trust — 4 percent of surveyed veterans said they trust VA to fulfill the nation’s commitment to veterans. This is a slight decrease from its previous score of 81 percent.
• Ease — 6 percent said it was easy to get the care or service they needed. This is down from its previous score of 76.9 percent.
• Effectiveness — 6 percent said they received the care or service they needed. This is a decrease from its previous score of 81.3 percent.
• Emotion — 8 percent said they felt like a valued customer. This is down from its previous score of 79.5 percent.

On the other hand, VA’s other surveys have apparently reported slight increases in veteran trust when it comes to individual service areas like VHA outpatient care and VBA Education Service. The table below shows these gains when compared to FY2026 Q2:

Service area	FY2026 Q2	FY2026 Q3	Increase (percentage points)
VHA outpatient care	93.4 percent	93.5 percent	0.1 percent
VHA inpatient care	90.9 percent	92.3 percent	1.4 percent
VBA Education Service	78.9 percent	81.3 percent	2.4 percent
VA Community Care	80.2 percent	81.5 percent	1.3 percent
VBA quality ratings	90.1 percent	90.8 percent	0.7 percent
VBA employee helpfulness	75.1 percent	76.5 percent	1.4 percent
Board of Veterans’ Appeals decisions	56.3 percent	57.7 percent	1.4 percent

According to VA, this FY2026 Q3 data is derived from about 3.5 million veteran responses to VA service-level surveys, as well as about 600,000 free-text responses. Overall, while these increases cover a broad range of categories, the gains themselves are generally modest.

What Complaints Do Veterans Still Have About VA?

Though the report indicates that veteran trust in VA has mostly remained high, there are areas of service where tensions may still remain between veterans and the Department.

For instance, VA’s own numbers reveal that veteran trust in Board of Veterans’ Appeals (BVA) decisions sits at around 57.7 percent, roughly 36 points below VHA outpatient care. Though this metric has seen a slight increase since the last report, its lower score still indicates that nearly half of veterans may not fully trust BVA decisions.

VA states that it also “identified specific experiences requiring additional attention, including disability compensation.” This particular callout may be VA acknowledging ongoing issues that veterans often face when it comes to the disability claims process, including long wait times, concerns over decision accuracy, and frustration at claim denials.

Learn More About VA’s Disability Claims Process

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do veterans trust VA more now than before?

VA does not identify any single cause in its FY2026 Q3 report. However, since 2016, its reported trust scores have risen across most service areas, with VA crediting veteran feedback collected through VSignals as helpful in improving its overall performance.

What happens if VA trust keeps dropping in certain areas?

A low VA trust score likely would not have any practical effect other than signaling to VA that its processes could use improvement. In the announcement regarding its FY2026 Q3 trust report, VA seems to indicate that it uses low service-level scores and written comments to direct follow-up and process changes in the responsible office. A low trust score would not change how a claim is decided and creates no appeal right.

How does VA compare to other government agencies on trust ratings?

VA’s trust ratings are unlikely to be directly comparable to those of other government agencies. This is largely because VSignals — the survey VA uses to measure veteran trust — is VA-specific and uses a scoring system that would likely be incompatible with those used by other agencies.

What does VA do with veteran feedback?

According to its announcement of FY2026 Q3 veteran trust scores, VA says it routes survey results and written comments to the teams responsible for each service area to identify strengths and respond to concerns.