VA Disability Calculator

What this VA disability calculator does

You have two or three or seven service connected conditions, each with its own percentage, and you want to know what the VA will actually pay. So you add the percentages up, get something over 100, and immediately suspect that cannot be right.

It is not right. The VA does not add ratings, it combines them, using a method that produces a considerably lower number than the arithmetic sum. That method has caught out every veteran who has ever looked at a rating decision, and it is the main thing this calculator exists to do.

Enter each condition's rating, add your dependents, and it returns your combined rating and an estimated monthly payment using the current compensation tables.

Everything runs in your browser. Nothing typed here is stored or sent anywhere. And this is an estimate for planning, not a determination. Only the VA decides your rating.

How to use it

1. Condition 1. Pick the rating for your first condition from the dropdown.
2. Add Condition. Press it for each further condition and set each rating. There is no limit.
3. Marital Status. Single or married. Dependent amounts only apply from 30 percent up.
4. Spouse receiving Aid and Attendance. Appears when you select married. This is an added amount for a spouse who needs the regular aid of another person.
5. Children under 18 and school children over 18. Children over 18 must be in a qualifying school programme to count, and they carry a much larger added amount than children under 18.
6. Parents. Dependent parents, up to two.

Press Calculate. Press Reset to clear it.

The order you enter conditions in does not matter. The calculator sorts them highest first before combining, which is what the regulation requires.

Why 50 plus 30 is not 80

The VA works from the idea of a whole person. You start at 100 percent efficient. Each disability takes a share of what is left, not a share of the original whole.

So with a 50 percent condition and a 30 percent condition, sorted highest first:

The 50 percent condition takes 50 percent of your whole 100, leaving you 50 percent efficient. You are 50 percent disabled.

The 30 percent condition then takes 30 percent of the remaining 50, which is 15. Add that to the 50 and you are at 65.

Written as a formula, applied to each condition in turn from highest to lowest:

new total = current total + (100 − current total) × (rating ÷ 100)

Here is what that does to some common combinations, against what people expect:

The third row is the one to look at. Three conditions summing to exactly 100 percent produce a combined rating of 70. And the last row shows why 100 percent through combining alone is so hard to reach: four substantial conditions totalling 160 on paper still land at 90.

The pattern behind it is worth internalising. Each additional condition is worth less than the one before it, because there is less of you left for it to take a share of. A 10 percent condition added to nothing is worth 10 points. The same 10 percent condition added to an existing 90 is worth one point.

How the final rating gets set

The combining above gives you a number with decimals. That is not your rating yet. Two more steps, both set out in 38 CFR 4.25.

First the combined value is rounded to a whole number. Then it is adjusted to the nearest multiple of 10, with one specific rule: values ending in 5 round upward.

So a combined value of 65 becomes a 70 percent rating. A 64 becomes 60. A 55 becomes 60, and a 54 becomes 50.

That single digit is worth real money. Using the current rates, a veteran alone at 60 percent receives $1,435.02 a month and at 70 percent receives $1,808.45. A combined value of 64 against 65 is a difference of $373.43 every month, which is close to $4,500 a year, decided by one point.

Which is exactly why veterans sitting near a rounding boundary care so much about a condition being rated 10 percent rather than 0, or 30 rather than 20. Near a boundary, a small change in one condition can move the whole rating a full band.

A worked example, start to finish

A married veteran with two children under 18, and three service connected conditions rated 50, 30 and 20 percent.

Step one, combine. Sorted highest first.

Start at 0. The 50 percent gives 0 + (100 − 0) × 0.50 = 50.

The 30 percent gives 50 + (100 − 50) × 0.30 = 65.

The 20 percent gives 65 + (100 − 65) × 0.20 = 72.

Step two, round. 72 to the nearest 10 is 70 percent. Note that the three conditions summed to 100 on paper.

Step three, look up the rate. This is the step people get wrong. VA's basic monthly rate table has a separate row for a veteran with dependent children, and that row already covers the first child. At 70 percent, a veteran with a spouse and one child receives $2,074.45. You do not start from the spouse-only figure of $1,961.45 and add a child to it.

Step four, add the rest. The added amounts apply from the second child onward. One more child under 18 at the 70 percent level adds $76.00.

$2,074.45 + $76.00 = $2,150.45 a month, tax free.

Worth pausing on that tax free part. VA disability compensation is not taxable at federal, state or local level, and it is not reported as income. So $2,150.45 tax free is worth noticeably more than the same figure as salary.

The 2026 compensation rates

These are effective from 1 December 2025, reflecting the 2.8 percent cost of living adjustment. Basic monthly rates:

Look at the jump from 90 to 100. Every other step up the ladder adds a few hundred dollars. That last one adds more than fifteen hundred, roughly two thirds again. It is by far the largest single increase in the schedule, and it is why the difference between a 90 and a 100 rating matters more than any other boundary.

Dependents, and the 30 percent threshold

Additional compensation for dependents begins at 30 percent. At 10 and 20 percent the rate is flat, and a spouse, children or dependent parents make no difference at all to the payment.

From 30 percent upward, these amounts are added on top of the basic rate. Note that the child amounts apply to each child beyond the first, because the basic rate row for a veteran with children already includes one:

The gap between a child under 18 and a school child over 18 surprises people. At 70 percent it is $76 against $246, more than three times as much. The over 18 amount only applies while the child is enrolled in a qualifying school programme, and it stops when they leave or turn 23.

One practical point that costs veterans money every year: dependents have to be added to your file before they are paid for. Getting married, having a child or a child starting college does not update anything automatically. If you are owed dependent amounts and have not filed, you may be able to claim back to the date of the event, but only if you act reasonably promptly.

What sits outside the basic rate

The tables above cover the standard schedule. Several things sit outside it and can raise the payment above what this calculator shows.

Special Monthly Compensation. Paid for specific severe circumstances, including loss or loss of use of a limb, blindness, deafness, being housebound, or needing the regular aid and attendance of another person. SMC runs on its own lettered rate schedule and can be considerably higher than the 100 percent rate.

Total Disability based on Individual Unemployability. If service connected conditions prevent you from holding substantially gainful employment, you can be paid at the 100 percent rate while carrying a lower schedular rating. Generally there are threshold requirements, but the point is that a 70 percent rating can pay at the 100 percent figure.

The bilateral factor. Where disabilities affect both arms, both legs, or paired skeletal muscles, 38 CFR 4.26 adds an extra 10 percent of the combined value for those conditions before the rest is combined. It genuinely does raise ratings and this calculator does not apply it, so if your conditions are bilateral your real rating may be a notch higher.

Effective dates and back pay. Compensation runs from the effective date of the award, not the date you found out. A claim granted after a long appeal can carry substantial retroactive pay.

All of which is to say the number this tool gives you is the schedular estimate. If any of the above applies, talk to an accredited representative or a Veterans Service Organisation, who help with claims at no charge.

Questions people ask

Why does the VA not just add my ratings together?

Because each condition is treated as taking a share of your remaining capacity rather than of the whole. A 30 percent condition applied to a body already 50 percent disabled is worth 15 points, not 30. See the section above.

What is 50 percent and 30 percent combined?

A combined value of 65, which rounds to a 70 percent rating. Not 80.

How do I get to 100 percent?

Through combining it is difficult, because each additional condition contributes less. A single 100 percent condition, or Individual Unemployability, or a very large number of substantial conditions. Four conditions rated 70, 50, 30 and 10 still only reach 90.

My combined value is 65. What is my rating?

70 percent. Values are rounded to the nearest 10, and anything ending in 5 rounds up.

Is VA disability compensation taxable?

No. It is exempt from federal, state and local income tax and is not reported as income.

I am rated 20 percent and married. Do I get more?

No. Dependent additions start at 30 percent. At 10 and 20 percent the rate is flat regardless of family.

Does the order I enter my conditions matter?

No. The calculator sorts them highest to lowest before combining, which is what the regulation requires, and the result is the same whichever order you type them.

What about the bilateral factor?

Not applied here. If your conditions affect paired limbs, 38 CFR 4.26 adds an extra 10 percent of the combined value for those conditions, which can lift your rating above what this shows.

References

A note on sourcing and dates. The compensation figures on this page are the rates effective 1 December 2025, published by the Department of Veterans Affairs and reflecting the 2.8 percent cost of living adjustment announced in October 2025. Rates change every December, so anyone reading this in a later year should check the current VA table. The combining method and the rounding rule come directly from the Code of Federal Regulations. This page is for planning only. Ratings and payments are determined by the VA on the facts of an individual claim.

1. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Current Veterans Disability Compensation Rates. https://www.va.gov/disability/compensation-rates/veteran-rates/
2. Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, 38 CFR § 4.25, Combined Ratings Table. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-38/chapter-I/part-4/subpart-A/section-4.25
3. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, 38 CFR Part 4, Subpart A, General Policy in Rating, containing § 4.26 on the bilateral factor. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/38/part-4/subpart-A
4. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Past Rates: 2025 Veterans Disability Compensation. https://www.va.gov/disability/compensation-rates/veteran-rates/past-rates-2025/