Have you ever wondered how the VA came up with the combined rating that it gave you?  Have you ever noticed that 1 + 1 does not equal 2 with the VA?  One of the most common complaints we get from veterans is ‘How in the world did the VA get the combined rating that they did with all the ratings I have?’

How Does the VA Rate Disabilities?

When it comes to service connected compensation claims, the VA takes the view that it should not add whole numbers together to get your rating but, instead, the VA takes percentages of percentages.  It is as if the VA says if you are 10% disabled then you are 90% healthy.  Therefore, the next rating is not added but is used to take a percentage of the ‘healthy’ 90%.  So for a veteran with two 10 ratings the first ten percent rating would be 10% of 100, which is 10%.  The second ten percent rating would be 10% of the 90% (again the ‘healthy’ percent of the veteran), which is 9%.  So the combined rating would be 19%.  The percentages are all rounded up or down to the nearest ten percent.  Here, the rating would be rounded to 20%.

The combined rating system starts to work against a veteran when he gets closer to 100%.  It gets harder and harder to get that higher rating, especially once a veteran is over 50%.  For instance, if a veteran has a ratings of 50% for PTSD, 50% for Sleep Apnea, a rating of 20% for diabetes and 20% for a back problem the combined rating is 80%.  So even though 50+50+20+20 equals 140 in real math; it is only 80 in VA math.

The difference that it leads to in compensation is huge.  According to the VA compensation rating table, a veteran, with no dependents, rated at 80% would receive $1,877.43 per month.  A single veteran rated at 100%, on the other hand, would receive $3,456.30 per month.  This veteran receiving a rating of 100%, which is only 20% greater than the 80% rating, gets almost 100% more money a month!

What Other Factors Does the VA Take Into Account for Disability?

There are other factors that make the ratings change too.  For example, if a veteran has a rating on each leg or each arm then those ratings are combined together and give the overall combined rating an extra boost.  Also, if a veteran has too many ratings on one arm or leg then VA stops counting those ratings.  Further, a veteran can step up to 100% through total disability due to individual unemployability.  That veteran must show that he cannot work and that he meets a certain rating.

The only help the VA offers veterans is to provide a chart and a couple dozen rules and exceptions.  Ironically, the VA does not even use this chart.  Instead the VA has its own combined rating calculator.  VA employees actually call it the Combinator.

Who Is Hill & Ponton?

At Hill & Ponton, a team of va disability lawyers, we have reviewed our veterans’ ratings by hand over many years.  We finally developed a disability rating calculator to combine all the veteran’s ratings and give the final combined rating.  After the calculator determines the rating, then you can put in the number of dependents and it gives you the monthly compensation rate that VA should be paying you.  This calculator has helped us a lot when we can double-check the ratings of our veterans.  As a result, we decided to put it on our website so that others can benefit from it too.  The calculator cannot make the VA get the right rating but it can help you understand where you stand.  A foundation of where you are in your claim will better help you get to where you want to go. This has been updated for 2023 rates as of 12/1/2022.