When you receive a VA disability rating, it reflects the severity of your service-connected condition, ranging from 0% to 100%. This rating directly affects the benefits you qualify for. However, the VA doesn’t just add your ratings together if you have multiple conditions. Instead, they use a combined ratings formula to determine your overall rating.
The formula accounts for the idea that a person can’t be more than 100% disabled. As a result, each additional condition has a smaller impact on your total rating. This ensures a more accurate reflection of your overall disability level.
Understanding the formula is key to making sure you’re receiving the proper compensation. For example, if you have two conditions rated at 50%, they don’t equal 100% when combined. Instead, the VA starts with your highest rating and works with the remaining percentage of your non-disabled body.
This combined approach can be confusing, but learning how the VA applies the formula will help ensure you’re getting the right benefits for your service-connected disabilities.
Here’s how the formula works:
- List Your Disabilities from Highest to Lowest Percentage
- Start by arranging your individual disability ratings in descending order.
- Calculate the Remaining Efficiency
- Subtract your highest disability rating from 100% to find your “remaining efficiency.”
- Formula: Remaining Efficiency = 100% – Highest Disability Rating
- Compute the Combined Rating Step by Step
- For the next highest rating, multiply it by your remaining efficiency.
- Formula: Adjusted Rating = Next Highest Rating × (Remaining Efficiency ÷ 100)
- Subtract the adjusted rating from your previous remaining efficiency to get a new remaining efficiency.
- Repeat this step for each additional disability.
- Determine the Combined Disability Rating
- Subtract your final remaining efficiency from 100%.
- Round this number to the nearest 10% to get your combined disability rating.
Example Calculation:
Let’s say you have three service-connected disabilities rated at 50%, 30%, and 20%.
- Step 1: List from highest to lowest: 50%, 30%, 20%.
- Step 2: Calculate remaining efficiency after the highest rating.
- Remaining Efficiency = 100% – 50% = 50%
- Step 3: Combine the next highest rating.
- Adjusted Rating = 30% × (50% ÷ 100) = 15%
- New Remaining Efficiency = 50% – 15% = 35%
- Step 4: Combine the next rating.
- Adjusted Rating = 20% × (35% ÷ 100) = 7%
- New Remaining Efficiency = 35% – 7% = 28%
- Step 5: Determine the combined rating.
- Combined Disability Rating = 100% – 28% = 72%
- Rounded to the nearest 10% = 70%
So, your combined VA disability rating would be 70%.
Key Points to Remember:
- Order Matters: Always start combining from the highest to the lowest rating.
- Not a Simple Sum: Adding individual ratings won’t give you the correct combined rating due to the diminishing impact of additional disabilities.
- Rounding Rules: The VA rounds to the nearest 10%. If your combined rating ends with 5% or higher, round up. If it’s less than 5%, round down.
- For example, 72% rounds down to 70%, while 75% would round up to 80%.
Bilateral Factor:
- If you have disabilities affecting both arms, both legs, or paired skeletal muscles, the VA applies a bilateral factor, adding an extra 10% to the combined rating of those disabilities before combining them with other disabilities.
Using the Combined Ratings Table:
The VA provides a Combined Ratings Table to simplify this process:
- Find your highest rating on the left column.
- Find your next highest rating on the top row.
- The point where the row and column intersect is your new combined rating.
- Repeat the process with the new combined rating and the next disability rating.
Example Using the Table:
- Combine 50% and 30%:
- Intersection gives 65%.
- Combine 65% with 20%:
- Intersection gives 72%.
- Rounded to nearest 10%: 70%.
Conclusion:
Calculating combined ratings can be complex. Understanding how the VA calculates combined disability ratings helps you know what to expect in your compensation. It’s important to be informed so you can verify that you’re receiving the benefits you’ve earned through your service. If you’re unsure about your rating, contact us, and we will help!
