2024 VA Disability Calculator

How the VA Rating System Works:

Your combined VA disability rating number is incredibly important.

It could be the difference between receiving thousands of dollars and millions of dollars.

Every service-connected disability will receive a rating of 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, or 100%.

The higher your VA rating, the more benefits you'll receive.

For example, a 10% VA rating is worth just under $170 per month, while a 100% VA rating can be worth more than $4,000 per month.

Click HERE to see the 2024 VA Disability Pay Rates.

Your final rating depends on the severity of your disability: the impact it has on your work and life.

However, some disabilities by nature impact you more than others and therefore might garner higher ratings.

VA Math: The “Fuzzy Math” Behind Your VA Disability Rating

If you have one disability, then the rating for that disability and the rating for your total disability will be one and the same.

However, most of us have more than one service-connected disability.

So how does the VA consider all of them and wind up with one combined VA rating percentage?

If you receive several ratings for corresponding disabilities, they will not just be added together in a cumulative nature.

If you are rated at 70% for PTSD and 50% for Sleep Apnea, you won't be 70% + 50% = 120% disabled.

Why?

Because it's physically impossible to be more than 100% disabled.

Instead, the VA starts with your highest overall rating, multiplies the next highest rating into the previous one, adds it on, and so on.

In the example I just gave, the VA would take the highest rating first, the 70% for PTSD.

According to that number, they would assume that 100% - 70% = 30% of you is still “healthy.”

Then they multiply that remaining 30% by the rating for your Sleep Apnea disability, which is 50%.

Take 50% of 30% and you wind up with 15%.

Add that 15% onto the original 70%, and you wind up with an 85% total disability rating, which would be rounded up to a 90% combined VA disability rating.

The process continues for each disability remaining from highest to lowest.

Is that clear?

Clear as mud, but it's the system we have.

Now that you understand it, you can see how someone could have five or six disabilities, but if they're all low value, the rating won't reach anywhere close to 100%. You'd have to layer in some 70s, 60s, 50s, 30s, etc.

But rather than trying to run your own calculations, just use our Combined VA Rating Calculator above!

Best VA Disability Calculator: How Do I Calculate My Combined VA Disability Rating?

The amount of monthly tax-free disability compensation you'll receive depends on your overall combined VA rating, which is based on a fuzzy “VA Math” calculation.

Veterans can use our #1 rated VA disability calculator to calculate your VA rating percentage quickly, and determine your monthly payment amount, in just a few clicks.

How to Get a 100% VA Rating - The Three Ways to Reach 100%

There are three main paths to get a 100% combined VA rating:

• If the VA's “fuzzy math” calculation puts you at or above 95.00% or higher, the VA will round you up to 100%.
• One of your conditions might be rated at 100% out of the gate. (For example, your PTSD is rated at 100%, so your six other rated disabilities might not even come into play.)
• If your disability renders you unable to maintain substantial gainful employment, you may receive the pay and benefits of a 100% VA rating—even if your combined VA rating is below 100%. For example, a Vietnam veteran might have a 70% rating because they suffer from cancer due to Agent Orange. But if the chemotherapy treatments and hospitalizations make substantially gainful employment impossible, they may instead be deemed Unemployable, which is also known as Total Disability Individual Unemployability (TDIU).

Want to know more about how your rate is calculated?

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