The chances of coming across the VA combined rating when filing a VA disability claim are high. The Veterans Affairs office uses the table to calculate your total disability rating. Not understanding the table will only lead to avoidable complications and frustrations.
Since circumstances vary, the table helps calculate your compensation by carefully examining your condition. You’ll only need the VA combined rating when you have more than one service-related disability. The VA uses it to simplify these complex calculations and estimates the correct rating with a VA disability calculator 2023. Here is more about the VA combined rating table and how to calculate your benefits.
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What’s Considered?
There are several considerations when calculating the compensation for veterans with multiple disabilities. During the rating calculation, the VA considers every illness or injury and assigns it a numerical rating, mostly in percentages. The percentage is decided based on how the disability has impacted family relationships, day-to-day interactions, or professional impacts.
They look at:
- Exam results of the pension and compensation claim.
- Test results, medical records, and other evidence provided.
- Intel gathered from sources such as military records and federal organizations.
Understanding How VA Math Works
VA math combines ratings of various disabilities giving the veteran a single rating. For each disability connected to a veteran, the ratings are combined to come up with a total that will determine the veteran’s compensation.
The disability of the veteran is a combination of each condition he suffers. Each % is NOT the percentage of the whole veteran when added together; instead, it is the remainder after removing all other percentages. For instance, a veteran suffering from a hand injury rated 30%, and a head injury rated 20%.
During the calculation, the most significant percentage, 30%, is subtracted from 100%, leaving 70%. It means 70% of the veteran body remains. The next calculation does not involve subtracting 20 from the 20% head injury. What’s subtracted is 20% from 70% of the remaining body (70*0.2=14). 70-14=56
Determining the total disability rating in this situation will require you to add 30% to 14%.
How to Calculate Using the VA Combined Rating Table
Using the Schedule of Rating, Different levels of symptoms are classified and measured into percentages of disability. Conditions like PTSD are 0, 10, 30,50, or 100 percent. For veterans suffering from more than one disability, the combined rating table comes in handy.
The first step involves putting the rating in order from the highest to the lowest percentage. For instance, disabilities rated 50% and 20%. Then you look for the next-highest rating in the top row of the combined rating table and the highest rating in the left column.
The next step is checking the number where the next highest rating on the top row and the rating on the left row meet. The number becomes the combined value of the ratings.
You’ll then need to round off the figure to the nearest 10% if you have two disabilities. All values ending in 0 or 1 are rounded down, while all others are rounded up. For example, if the rating were 75, it would be rounded off to 80%. The third-highest rating is then combined with the first two until they get a total rating and round off the total to the nearest 10%.
All veterans should try to understand the VA combined rating, regardless of their disability status. The table ensures former servicemen receive fair compensation by simplifying the complex calculations involved with multiple injuries. Knowing how the Veterans Affairs office determines your benefits will help increase your chances of getting compensated with little to no complications.
