The Benefits of Using a VA Disability Calculator for Veterans and Their Families
Most veterans have multiple disabilities rated by the VA. When a veteran is rated for more than one condition, those ratings are combined and ranked in order of severity. For example, a rating of 70% for PTSD and 50% for Sleep Apnea is connected to reaching 80% total disability.
The key to receiving the compensation you deserve is a well-developed claim supported by strong documentation.
It’s Quick
Most veterans are rated for multiple disabilities and wind up with what’s known as a combined disability rating. When you combine ratings, VA uses a unique equation to determine your overall percentage disability rating. Often, there are misconceptions as to how this works. Here is a look at how it functions.
For example, if you’re rated 70% for PTSD and 50% for Sleep Apnea, the total rating is not 100% because it’s physically impossible to be more than 100% disabled. Instead, the higher-rated condition is prioritized and multiplied into the lower-rated one to arrive at a final percentage disability rating.
This is why the combining disability calculator on our website can be so helpful for veterans. The calculator does the complex math that VA uses and provides you with an estimate of your potential combined rating eligibility.
It’s Free
Using a VA disability calculator can help veterans estimate their monthly benefits. However, the actual amount they receive may be higher or lower than what is calculated by this tool.
This difference is due to how the VA determines your disability rating. The VA uses a complex formula to combine multiple disabilities. This is because disability ratings are not additive.
For example, if one disability is rated at 50% and another at 30%, your combined rating will be 70%. This is because the VA takes your highest symptom level and subtracts it from 100, then adds your second-highest symptom percentage to that number.
Then, they consider additional factors like your household size and how many dependent children you have. This information allows them to adjust cost-of-living increases and other supplemental allowances. They also calculate your disability rating based on your symptoms and severity levels. This can get complicated.
It’s Easy
The VA disability rating process is complicated, but using a calculator makes it easy for you to understand your potential ratings and compensation. This helps you plan to avoid delays in securing the benefits you need and deserve.
It is important to understand how the VA determines combined disability ratings when you have multiple disabilities. This is because the ratings are not additive, which means that if you have one disability rated at 50% and another at 20%, your overall disability rating won’t be 80%.
To calculate your combined disability rating, the VA subtracts your highest rating from 100%. For example, if your PTSD rating is 70%, that leaves you with 30%. They then multiply that 30% by your Sleep Apnea disability rating of 50%, which equals 15%. Then, they add 15% to the remaining 70%, resulting in your overall disability rating of 85%. The same process is applied to each disability in order of severity from highest to lowest.
It’s Secure
Many veterans with multiple service-connected disabilities are awarded what is called a combined disability rating. This rating determines how much compensation a veteran is eligible to receive. It’s important to note that combined ratings are not additive. For example, if one condition is rated at 70% and another at 50%, you won’t receive 80% disability compensation because it doesn’t work that way. Instead, the VA considers your disabilities using a combined rating table, and they rank them in order of severity.
The lowest-ranked condition will get a 0 percent disability rating, and the highest will receive a 100% disability rating. Then, the remaining ratings are calculated and rounded to the nearest 10% to determine your new efficiency rating.
To help veterans estimate what their potential combined disability rating and associated monthly compensation might be, we developed a free online VA disability calculator. Enter your current or prospective ratings and household details to determine how much you could be compensated.
