When calculating combined disability ratings, the VA does not use regular math. Instead of simply adding up the percentage disability ratings for various conditions to reach a grand total disability rating, the VA takes percentages of percentages.
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When calculating combined disability ratings, the VA does not use regular math. Instead of simply adding up the percentage disability ratings for various conditions to reach a grand total disability rating, the VA takes percentages of percentages.
If you are a military Veteran with a service-connected injury or illness, you may have spent some time trying to figure out how the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) determined the combined disability rating you received. Our VA Disability Calculator simplifies the process so you can easily determine what you are entitled to receive. Our Veterans disability law firm provides this because you can end up missing out on thousands of dollars each month when ratings are determined by what VA employees call The Combinator.
In VA math, whole numbers are not added together to get your rating, only percentages of percentages are. This makes it harder for Veterans to get the higher rating for injuries once they surpass 50 percent. For instance, suppose you have a rating of 50 percent for one injury, 50 percent for another, 20 percent for hearing loss, and 20 percent for a medical condition. The VA combined rating math equals 80 percent, even though in real math, the total is 140 percent. We hope our Veterans disability calculator clears up your potential rating and the amount you may be owed per month. Benefits are calculated using the 2024 cost-of-living adjustment levels. Determine your potential VA disability rating – and call us if you think we can help!
The VA uses percentage opposites to determine your disability rating. If you are 10 percent disabled, that means the VA believes you are 90 percent in good health. With multiple ratings, they are not added, but instead are multiplied with each new ‘good health’ rating. So, if you have two 10 percent ratings, the first one is treated as 10 percent of 100 percent; but the second rating is 10 percent of the 90 percent ‘good health.’ That comes out to nine percent, for a total of 19 percent. Fortunately, in this case, because ratings are rounded up or down to the closest 10 percent, your rating would be rounded up to 20 percent.
In VA math, compensation disparities are huge. As an example, an 80 percent disabled Veteran with no dependents receives a monthly check of $1,877.43 under the 2024 benefits adjustment. A Veteran in the same situation with a 100 percent disability rating receives a monthly $3,456.30 check. The 20 percent difference in disability ratings equals out to an almost 100 percent difference in benefits per month. This is why we recommend using our Veteran disability calculator, so you can have a clear idea of what you may be owed.
Ratings can change for other reasons, too. With the bilateral factor, ratings for each leg or arm are combined and 10 percent added as a boost. However, if a Veteran has several ratings on a leg or arm, the VA does not count all of them. When taking individual circumstances into account, Veterans can be rated 100 percent disabled if they prove they cannot work and meet a benchmark rating less than 100 percent to qualify.
Whether you have experienced hearing loss, a disability in your arm, or something else, we encourage you to utilize our Veterans disability benefits calculator and then reach out to our team and discuss how we could help you secure those benefits. We can assist anyone in determining your VA disability rating, no matter which state you are living in, so call us today!
