VA Disability Rating Calculator

The VA combines disability ratings using a formula called VA Math that accounts for the fact that you cannot be more than 100% disabled. Here is how it works:

1. Start with your highest rating. This represents the percentage of your body that is disabled.
2. Apply the next rating to the remaining healthy percentage. If your first rating is 50%, you have 50% of your body considered healthy. Your next rating is applied to that 50%.
3. Repeat for each additional rating. Each new rating is applied to the remaining healthy percentage, not the original 100%.
4. Round to the nearest 10%. The final combined value is rounded to the nearest multiple of 10 to determine your official VA rating.

Example: A veteran with a 50% and a 30% rating:

• Start: 50% disabled, 50% healthy
• Apply 30% to the remaining 50%: 30% × 50% = 15%
• Combined: 50% + 15% = 65%
• Rounded to nearest 10%: 70%

The bilateral factor applies when you have disabilities affecting both paired extremities — for example, both knees, both shoulders, or paired arms/legs.

When bilateral conditions exist, the VA:

1. Combines just the bilateral ratings using VA Math
2. Adds a 10% bonus to that combined bilateral value and rounds it to the nearest whole number
3. Then combines the rounded bilateral result with your remaining non-bilateral ratings

This generally results in a slightly higher overall rating compared to combining everything without the bilateral factor.

Since April 16, 2023, 38 CFR 4.26(d) guarantees the factor can only help, never hurt: if applying it would produce a lower payable rating, the VA — and this calculator — use the more favorable computation instead.

VA Math is the method the Department of Veterans Affairs uses to combine multiple disability ratings. Instead of simply adding ratings together, the VA applies each rating to the remaining "healthy" percentage of the body.

For example, a 50% rating and a 30% rating do not equal 80%. The 50% is applied first, leaving 50% healthy. The 30% is then applied to that remaining 50%, which equals 15%. So the combined value is 50% + 15% = 65%, which rounds to 70%.

The bilateral factor applies when a veteran has disabilities affecting both paired extremities — both arms, both legs, or paired limbs. When this applies, the VA combines the bilateral ratings first, adds a 10% bonus to that combined value, rounds the result to the nearest whole number, and then combines it with the remaining non-bilateral ratings.

This generally results in a slightly higher combined rating.

The VA's approach recognizes that a person cannot be more than 100% disabled. If ratings were simply added, a veteran with several moderate disabilities could exceed 100%, which is not medically possible.

VA Math reflects the idea that each additional disability has a proportionally smaller impact on overall health because it only affects the remaining healthy portion of the body.

VA disability compensation rates are adjusted annually based on the Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA), which is tied to the Consumer Price Index. The new rates typically take effect on December 1 each year.

The 2026 COLA increase was 2.8%, effective December 1, 2025. Rate changes are published by the VA and apply automatically — veterans do not need to take any action to receive the updated amounts.

Veterans rated 30% or higher receive additional tax-free compensation for qualifying dependents:

• Spouse — adds $65-$220/month depending on rating
• Dependent parents — adds $52-$176/month per parent
• Children under 18 — first child adds $44-$147/month; each additional child adds $32-$109/month
• Children 18+ in school — each adds $105-$352/month
• Aid & Attendance spouse — adds $61-$201/month if your spouse needs daily care

Ratings of 10% and 20% receive a flat rate regardless of dependents.

Special Monthly Compensation (SMC) is extra tax-free pay for specific losses — and the most common award, SMC-K, is a flat monthly amount paid on top of your regular compensation. A veteran at 90% with SMC-K deposits more each month than the 90% chart amount; higher SMC levels replace the 100% rate with larger amounts entirely.

If your deposit is higher than the chart, check your VA decision letter for an SMC award. Estimate what SMC adds with our SMC Calculator.

When conditions are granted at different times — or a single decision assigns staged ratings — each rating carries its own effective date. Under 38 CFR 3.31, payment at a new rate begins the first day of the month after the effective date, never mid-month. VA also pays in arrears: each deposit covers the prior month.

The result: a rating increase often takes one to two payment cycles to show up, and back pay is computed period by period across each effective date. Your current deposit can lag — or briefly differ from — a straight read of today's pay chart. See our VA Back Pay Estimator to work through the periods.

When paired limbs are involved, the bilateral factor under 38 CFR 4.26 changes the math: bilateral conditions are combined with each other first, the 10% bilateral factor is added to that combined value and rounded to the nearest whole number, and the result is then combined with your remaining ratings. This calculator uses that standard sequence — hand calculations and worksheets that skip the factor, or apply it in a different order, can land a few points off your exact combined percentage, occasionally enough to cross into a different 10% rating band.

Since April 2023, 38 CFR 4.26(d) also requires the VA to use whichever bilateral-factor computation is most favorable to the veteran: if applying the factor would produce a lower combined evaluation, the VA uses the computation without it. This calculator applies that exception automatically — it computes your rating both with and without the factor, shows the more favorable result, and notes in the step-by-step breakdown when the exception kicked in.