Estimate Your Combined VA Rating

The VA uses what is often called "VA math." It starts with the assumption that you are 100% healthy, applies your highest rating first, and then applies each remaining rating only to the portion of you that is still considered healthy.

1. 1Apply your highest rating. A 50% rating leaves 50% remaining healthy capacity.
2. 2Apply the next rating to what remains. A 30% rating applied to the remaining 50% adds 15%, for a running total of 65%.
3. 3Repeat for every additional rating.
4. 4Round the final figure to the nearest 10%. 65% rounds to 70%.

This is why adding a small rating to an already high combined rating often moves the total very little, and why the order and value of each individual rating matters so much when you are building a claim.

When you have service-connected disabilities affecting both arms, both legs, or paired skeletal muscles, VA adds an extra 10% to recognize the added impact of losing function on both sides of the body.

1. 1Combine the ratings within the bilateral group first.
2. 2Add 10% of that combined value to it.
3. 3Combine that group value with your remaining ratings.
4. 4Round the final figure to the nearest 10%.

Example: a 30% right knee rating and a 30% left knee rating combine to 51%. The bilateral factor adds 5.1%, for a total of 56.1%, which rounds up to a 60% rating. Without the bilateral factor those same two ratings stop at 51% and round down to 50% — a real difference in both your rating and your monthly payment.