VA Disability Calculator
Work out your combined rating, and — more usefully — see exactly why the VA's arithmetic produces the number it does. Two ratings of 50% and 30% do not make 80%, and once you see why, the whole system stops feeling arbitrary.
Before anything else
ECOS Insurance Solutions is an insurance agency. We are not accredited by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and we cannot help you prepare, file or argue a claim — federal law reserves that for VA-accredited attorneys, claims agents and representatives of recognised veterans service organisations. A VSO will do it for free. This page exists to explain arithmetic, and nothing more.
The VA's arithmetic, in plain English
The VA does not add your ratings, and it is not being difficult
It starts from one whole person who is 100% able, and asks how much ability each condition takes away from whatever is left. You cannot be more than 100% disabled, so every rating after the first can only take a slice of what remains. That single idea explains almost everything that seems unfair about the result.
Your biggest rating comes off the full 100. Everything after it does not
Order your ratings highest first. A 50% rating on a whole person takes 50 points and leaves you 50% able. A 30% rating then takes 30% of that remaining 50%, which is 15 points — not 30. So 50 and 30 combine to 65, not 80. That is the whole trick, and it is the reason two veterans with the same list of conditions in a different order still land on the same number.
This is why 90% feels like a wall
At 90% you have 10% of ability left for anything new to be rated against. A fresh 50% rating takes 50% of that 10%, which is five points. It moves you to 95, which rounds to 100 — but a 40% rating would only take four points, leaving you at 94, which rounds back down to 90. Nothing has gone wrong. There is simply very little left to take.
The rounding is where a single point can be worth ten
Once everything is combined, the VA converts the result to the nearest number ending in zero, and anything ending in 5 rounds up. A combined value of 74 becomes a 70% rating. A combined value of 75 becomes 80%. That is why the calculator below shows you both numbers: the combined value is where you actually are, and the rounded rating is what the VA prints.
If both arms or both legs are affected, you get a little back
This is the bilateral factor. Ratings for paired limbs, or paired skeletal muscles, are combined with each other first, and then the VA adds another 10% of that combined value — added, not combined — before going any further. It is the one place in this system where the arithmetic works in your favour, and it is routinely missed.
Your ratings
Add each rating the VA has assigned you. Tick the box where a rating is for a paired limb — both knees, both shoulders, both arms, both legs — so the bilateral factor is applied. Do not enter any medical detail; the percentage is all this needs.
How the VA gets to your number
Add a rating above and the arithmetic appears here, step by step.
The box marked “To reach 100%” answers the question everybody actually has: what would one more rating have to be? It is worked out from your combined value rather than your rounded rating, which matters — two veterans both rated 90% can need different things, because one may be at a combined 90 and the other at 94.
Working it out on paper
The calculator needs JavaScript. The method is not complicated, so here it is in full.
- Write your ratings down in order, highest first.
- Start at 100% able. Subtract your highest rating: a 50% rating leaves you 50% able.
- Take the next rating as a percentage OF WHAT IS LEFT, not of 100. 30% of 50 is 15, so you are now 65% disabled and 35% able.
- Keep going down the list the same way, each time taking a percentage of what remains.
- If any ratings are for paired limbs, combine those with each other first, then add an extra 10% of that combined value before doing anything else with it.
- Round the final number to the nearest ten. Anything ending in 5 rounds up: 74 becomes 70, 75 becomes 80.
Ask about Permanent and Total
Reaching 100% is not the end of it. If VA also considers your condition permanent, that unlocks benefits for your family which the 100% rating alone does not.
What Permanent and Total actually means
Two separate words doing two separate jobs. Total means you are rated 100%, either on the schedule or through TDIU. Permanent means VA does not expect your condition to improve. P&T is both at once, and it is the permanence that unlocks the extra benefits — not the 100% on its own.
Check your decision letter before you ask for anything
Many veterans are already P&T and do not know it. Look at your rating decision: if it schedules no future examinations, that is normally VA saying it does not expect improvement. Some letters say “permanent and total” outright; some indicate it only by the absence of a scheduled re-examination.
If you believe it should be permanent and the letter does not say so
You can ask. The usual vehicle is a Statement in Support of Claim (VA Form 21-4138) asking VA to find the condition permanent, supported by medical evidence that it is static and not expected to improve — a physician's statement saying so in those terms carries far more weight than treatment records alone. Where you have genuinely new evidence, a supplemental claim is the other route.
What it unlocks, and why it is worth the trouble
P&T generally opens Chapter 35 Dependents' Educational Assistance for your spouse and children, and CHAMPVA health coverage for dependents. It normally ends routine re-examinations. Many states add their own property tax exemption on top, and those vary enormously. Eligibility rules change, so confirm the current position at VA.gov rather than taking any website's word for it — including this one.
There is more than one route
Schedular 100%
Your combined value reaches 95 or more, which rounds to 100%. That is what the calculator above works out.
Total Disability based on Individual Unemployability (TDIU)
A separate route. If service-connected disabilities prevent you from holding substantially gainful employment, VA can pay at the 100% rate even though your combined rating is lower. There are rating thresholds that usually apply, and exceptions to them. An accredited representative can tell you whether it fits your situation.
Questions veterans actually ask
Why do my ratings not just add up?
Because you cannot be more than 100% disabled, so each rating is applied to whatever ability is left rather than to the whole person again. A 50% rating leaves you 50% able; a 30% rating then takes 30% of that 50%, which is 15 points. The result is 65, not 80. It is arithmetic, not a judgement about you, and it produces the same answer no matter what order your conditions were granted in.
I am at 90% and a new rating changed nothing. Is that right?
Probably, and here is why. At 90% there is only 10% of ability left to rate against, so a new 30% rating takes 30% of 10, which is three points. That moves you from 90 to 93, and 93 still rounds down to 90. The rating was real and it did move your combined value — it just did not move it far enough to cross the rounding line at 95.
What is the bilateral factor and how do I know if I have it?
It applies when the same kind of disability affects both arms, both legs, or paired skeletal muscles — both knees, both shoulders, both feet. Those ratings are combined with each other first, then VA adds an extra 10% of that combined value before combining with anything else. Tick the bilateral box on each paired rating in the calculator above and you will see it applied.
Does this calculator tell me what I will be paid?
No, and deliberately. Compensation depends on your rating, your dependents and the current payment rates, which change. This page works out the rating only. The current rate tables are published at VA.gov, and that is the place to read them rather than any figure printed on a private website.
Can you help me file or appeal my claim?
No. Federal law reserves that for people accredited by VA — accredited attorneys, accredited claims agents, and representatives of recognised veterans service organisations. We are an insurance agency and hold no such accreditation. A VSO will help you at no charge, and VA publishes a search tool for accredited representatives. Be wary of anyone who offers to file for you for a percentage of your back pay.
The people who can actually act on this
A veterans service organisation will represent you at no charge. VA publishes a search for accredited attorneys, claims agents and VSO representatives. Be wary of anyone offering to file for you in exchange for a share of your back pay.