Veteran’s Guide to 70% VA Disability Benefits

In this guide, we’ve compiled a near-comprehensive list of benefits for veterans 70% disabled (or higher). 

We’ll cover the 70% VA rating in detail, along with tips, strategies, and lessons learned to help you get ALL of the 70% VA benefits you have earned for serving our country.

Okay, let’s jump in and explore the 70% VA rating disability benefits in detail!

Summary of Key Points

VA benefits for veterans with a 70% VA disability rating include monthly compensation, healthcare, and education benefits.
Financial Assistance: Breakdown of VA monthly compensation rates based on family status, outlining financial support options.
Increasing VA Disability Rating: Learn strategies to increase a 70% VA disability rating to 100%, focusing on documenting symptoms and pursuing high-value claims.
Practical Tips: Actionable advice for veterans navigating the VA claims process, including preparing for exams and utilizing support resources effectively.

List of Top Benefits for Veterans with a 70% VA Disability Rating

Here is our list of the Top 70% VA Disability Benefits you have access to with a 70% VA rating (or higher):

• VA Special Monthly Compensation Benefits
• Veterans Benefits Banking Program (VBBP)
• No-cost health care and prescription medications
• Travel allowance for scheduled appointments for care at a VA medical facility or VA-authorized health care facility
• Waiver of VA funding fee for home loan
• Vocational Rehabilitation & Employment
• Concurrent receipt of military retired pay
• VA TDIU or “Total Disability Individual Unemployability” Benefits
• Dependents Educational Assistance
• Up to $5,000 Per Year Folds of Honor Educational Scholarships for Eligible Dependents of Disabled Veterans
• Special restorative training
• CHAMPVA Medical Insurance (if unemployable disability condition is permanent)
• Dental care (if unemployable)
• Burial and plot allowance
• Use of commissaries, exchanges, and morale, welfare and recreation (MWR) retail facilities, in-person and online.
• 10-point Veteran preference in federal hiring
• Direct hire authority

Monthly 70 Percent VA Disability Compensation Rates in 2024

• Veteran alone (no dependents): $1,716.28
• With spouse (no parents or children): $1,861.28
• With spouse and 1 parent (no children): $1,978.28
• With spouse and 2 dependent parents (no children): $2,095.28
• With 1 parent (no spouse or children): $1,833.28
• With 2 parents (no spouse or children): $1,950.28
• Veteran with a child only (no spouse or parents): $1,813.28
• With 1 child and dependent spouse (no parents): $1,968.28
• With 1 child, spouse, and 1 parent: $2,085.28
• With 1 child, spouse and 2 parents: $2,202.28
• With 1 child and 1 parent: $1,930.28
• With 1 child and 2 parents (no spouse): $2,047.28
• Each additional child under age 18: $72.00
• Each additional child over age 18 in a qualifying school program: $234.00
• Spouse receives Aid and Attendance benefits: $134.00

Increasing VA Disability From 70 Percent to 100 Percent (Understanding ‘VA Math’)

What if you already have a 70% VA rating? Is increasing your rating to 100% straightforward and easy?

Not quite.

Unfortunately, when you have multiple disabilities rated by the VA, they don’t simply add up your separate ratings to calculate your total disability rating.

Instead, they calculate what’s called your “combined VA disability rating.” To do this, they use what we call “fuzzy math.”

Here is how the VA puts it: “Disability ratings are not additive, meaning that if a Veteran has one VA disability rated 60% and a second VA disability 20%, the combined VA rating is not 80%. This is because subsequent disability ratings are applied to an already disabled Veteran, so the 20% disability is applied to a Veteran who is already 60% disabled.”

Combined VA Disability Rating Explained

Calculating your combined VA disability rating involves factoring your individual VA ratings into each other. This sounds confusing, but we’re going to make sense of it.

It starts with the assumption that you can’t be more than 100% disabled. Oftentimes, if you just add up each individual VA rating, it totals above 100%. This is why the VA uses their “fuzzy math.”

When calculating your combined VA disability rating, start with your highest VA rating. Then, subtract it from 100.

For example: Say you have a VA disability rated at 50% and another VA disability rated at 30%:

Subtract 50 from 100 to get 50%.

Next, find 30% of 50%. This equals 15%.

Add 15% to 50% to get a total combined VA rating of 65%. This is then rounded to the nearest 10 which equals a 70% VA rating.

NOTE: All VA disability ratings are rounded to the nearest 10. Always round at the end of your calculations.

Now, say you get a third VA disability rated at 20%. Start from the beginning using your 65% total combined rating:

100 – 65 = 35%

20% of 35 is 7%.

65 + 7 = a new total combined rating of 72%. This is then rounded to a 70 percent VA disability rating.

Amazing! A 20% VA rating didn’t increase your total combined VA rating at all! That’s how the VA does it…

PRO TIP: Our handy 2024 VA Disability Calculator does all the math for you.

Combined VA Disability Rating Table

You can check out the VA’s combined rating table on their website.

To use this table, find your highest VA rating in the left-hand column, then follow across to your next lowest VA rating. The number in the cell is your combined rating.

If you have more than two disabilities, repeat the process using your first combined disability rating in the left-hand column and follow across to your third disability rating to find your new combined rating.

For example: Say your highest rating is 60%, your second highest is 30%, and your third is 20%.

Find 60 in the left-hand column, then follow across until you reach the 30% column. The number in the cell is your combined disability rating. In this case, it’s 72%.

Next, find 72% in the left-hand column, then follow across until you reach the 20% column. The number in the cell is your new combined disability rating. 

In this example, your total combined rating is 78%, which is rounded up to 80%.

Tips to Increase Your Combined VA Disability Rating to 100%

As you can see from how the math works, it’s difficult to increase an already high VA rating to 100%. 

In fact, to take a 70% VA rating to 100%, your second VA rating needs to be at least 90%. So, it’s hard, but not impossible.

How to Increase VA Disability from 70 to 100%

Below are a few tips and resources that can help you increase your VA disability rating from 70% to 100%:

• Tip #1: Use MyHealtheVet to Get Your Current Symptoms Documented in VA Medical Records. Thoroughly documenting your symptoms is important because VA disability ratings are based on your symptoms. The worse your symptoms, the higher your rating. If you fail to mention all your symptoms during a VA-ordered exam (such as your C&P Exam), then the rater won’t be able to accurately assess your rating.
• Tip #2: Go for High-Value VA Disability Claims (e.g., Mental Health, Lifestyle Impact Claim, Migraines, Sleep Apnea). As we explained in the section above, getting your VA disability rating to 100% is difficult if you’re trying to do it through multiple disability ratings. But it’s possible if you can land multiple high-value VA disability ratings.
• Tip #3: Have a Private Provider Complete DBQs for Conditions Already Service Connected. Disability Benefits Questionnaires are used to show the level of impairment you are currently facing. The main advantage of a DBQ is to prove to your VA examiner how this disability has changed your life.
• Tip #4: Use a Medical Nexus Letters to help establish service connection. Service connection is one of the hardest parts of all VA claims. A nexus letter is a written statement from a qualified medical professional stating that, in their opinion, your condition was probably caused by your service. They go a long way in establishing service connection.
• Tip #5: Obtain a Buddy Letter from a First-Hand Witness. Buddy letters can also go a long way in establishing service connection. They help prove that what you’re claiming caused your disability really did happen.
• Tip #6: Prepare For Your Compensation and Pension (C&P) Exam. C&P Exams can make or break your claim. They’re easy to mess up so make sure you go in knowing what to expect and have your answers prepared (we don’t mean go in prepared to lie. We mean to go in prepared to talk about how your symptoms affect your life in detail).
• Tip #7: Go for Total Disability Individual Unemployability (TDIU). TDIU is a program that allows you to be compensated at the 100% level even if you don’t have a 100% VA disability rating.

Need More Assistance?

Most veterans are underrated for their disabilities and, therefore, not getting their due compensation. At VA Claims Insider, we help you understand and take control of the claims process, so you can get the rating and compensation you’re owed by law.

Our process takes the guesswork out of filing a VA disability claim and supports you every step of the way in building a fully-developed claim (FDC)—so you can increase your rating FAST!

If you’ve filed your VA disability claim and have been denied or have received a low rating—or you’re unsure how to get started—reach out to us! 

Take advantage of a FREE VA Claim Discovery Call. 

Learn what you’ve been missing—so you can FINALLY get the disability rating and compensation YOU DESERVE!

About The Author

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Brian Reese

Brian Reese is a world-renowned VA disability benefits expert and the #1 bestselling author of VA Claim Secrets and You Deserve It. Motivated by his own frustration with the VA claim process, Brian founded VA Claims Insider to help disabled veterans secure their VA disability compensation faster, regardless of their past struggles with the VA. Since 2013, he has positively impacted the lives of over 10 million military, veterans, and their families.

A former active-duty Air Force officer, Brian has extensive experience leading diverse teams in challenging international environments, including a combat tour in Afghanistan in 2011 supporting Operation ENDURING FREEDOM.

Brian is a Distinguished Graduate of Management from the United States Air Force Academy and earned his MBA from Oklahoma State University’s Spears School of Business, where he was a National Honor Scholar, ranking in the top 1% of his class.