VA Disability Ratings Explained

VA Benefits · Updated July 2026 · 14 min read

A VA disability rating is a percentage that describes how much a service-connected condition reduces your ability to function and earn a living. This guide explains the 0-100% scale, why two ratings do not simply add together, and how to read the decision letter that assigns them.

What a VA disability rating actually measures

A VA disability rating is a percentage assigned to a condition that VA has already agreed is connected to your military service. The percentage is not a measure of how much pain you are in or how much you sacrificed. By law, the rating schedule is a schedule of "reductions in earning capacity" — how much the condition is expected to interfere with your ability to work and function.

The law that creates the rating schedule allows exactly ten grades of disability and no more: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100 percent. There is no such thing as a 15% or a 45% rating for a single condition. If the evidence falls between two levels in the rating criteria, the rule is to assign the higher evaluation when the overall disability picture more nearly approximates the criteria for that higher rating; otherwise the lower one is assigned.

A 0% rating is also possible, and it is not a denial. "Compensable" is VA's word for a rating that actually pays money — 10% and above. When VA agrees a condition is service-connected but the symptoms do not yet meet the requirements for a compensable evaluation, a 0% rating is assigned. A 0% rating pays nothing on its own, but it establishes service connection on the record. That matters: it gives you a rated condition to seek an increase on later if symptoms worsen, and it can support a later claim for a secondary condition caused or aggravated by it. Service-connected status at 0% can also matter for other VA programs, including health care enrollment — ask an accredited representative how it applies to your situation.

Each rated condition is tied to a diagnostic code in VA's rating schedule. A diagnostic code is the four-digit number VA uses to identify which set of rating criteria it applied. Two veterans with the same diagnosis can end up at different percentages because the criteria measure specific findings — range of motion, frequency of episodes, occupational impairment — not the diagnosis itself.

• Ratings come in 10% steps only, from 10% through 100%.
• A 0% rating means service-connected but not yet compensable — keep the record, it still has value.
• When the evidence is between two levels, the higher rating applies if the disability picture more nearly matches it.
• The diagnostic code on your decision tells you which criteria were used.

How combined ratings work: the whole-person formula

This is the part that surprises almost everyone. VA does not add your ratings together. A veteran rated 60% for one condition and 20% for another does not have an 80% combined rating. VA uses what the regulation calls the combined ratings table, built on a whole-person concept: each new disability is applied to whatever ability you have left, not to a fresh 100%.

The regulation explains it directly. A person with a 60 percent disability is considered 40 percent efficient. A further 30 percent disability leaves only 70 percent of the efficiency that remained after the first disability — 28 percent efficiency altogether. In plain terms, the second condition takes its percentage out of your remaining capacity, not out of the whole. That is why the second, third and fourth ratings are each worth progressively less on paper.

The mechanics work like this. Arrange your ratings from most severe to least severe. Combine the top two using the table. Take that result and combine it with the next rating. Repeat until every rating is used. Worked examples that follow directly from the regulation's method: 40% and 20% combine to 52. Two 10% ratings combine to 19. A 60% and a 20% combine to 68 — not 80. A 70% and a 50% combine to 85. The regulation's own published example is that a 50% and a 30% combine to 65.

Rounding happens once, at the very end, after every condition has been combined. The final combined value is converted to the nearest number divisible by 10, and values ending in 5 are adjusted upward. So a combined value of 52 becomes a 50% rating, and a combined value of 65 becomes a 70% rating. Do not round in the middle of the calculation — that produces the wrong answer. One practical consequence: because values ending in 5 round up, any combined value of 95 or higher converts to a 100% rating.

• Order the ratings from highest to lowest before combining.
• Each rating applies only to the capacity remaining after the ones above it.
• Round only once — at the end. Values ending in 1-4 round down, 5-9 round up.
• A combined value of 95 or above converts to 100%. Getting there generally takes either a single 100% condition or a stack of high ratings.

The bilateral factor: the one place you get a bonus

There is a narrow exception that works in your favor. When a partial disability affects both arms, or both legs, or paired skeletal muscles, VA applies what is called the bilateral factor. The ratings for the right and left sides are combined in the usual way, and then an extra 10 percent of that combined value is added — literally added, not combined — before any further combinations are done.

There is an important condition the regulation attaches: the bilateral factor applies only where there is partial disability of compensable degree in each of the two paired extremities or paired skeletal muscles. In practice that means each side has to carry a rating of at least 10% on its own. A rated condition on one side paired with a 0% or unrated condition on the other does not trigger it.

The regulation's own example makes the math concrete. Take a veteran with disabilities rated 60%, 20%, 10% and 10%, where the two 10% ratings are the bilateral pair. The two 10s combine to 19. Ten percent of 19 is 1.9, which is added to give roughly 21. The list is then reordered by severity as 60, 21 and 20. Sixty and 21 combine to 68. Sixty-eight and 20 combine to 74. The final 74 converts to a 70% rating.

Two further details matter. First, "arms" and "legs" mean the upper extremities and lower extremities as a whole — a hand condition on one side and a shoulder condition on the other can still count as bilateral, provided each side is compensable. Second, once the bilateral factor is applied, that combined figure is treated as a single disability for the purpose of ordering by severity and for every further combination.

VA is expected to apply the bilateral factor as part of the rating calculation, but it is not always spelled out on the decision letter. If you have compensable paired-extremity conditions and the arithmetic on your decision does not seem to account for it, that is a reasonable thing to ask an accredited representative to check.

What each rating pays, and what else it unlocks

VA disability compensation is a monthly, tax-free payment, and the amount depends on the combined rating. Under the rate table effective December 1, 2025 — the rates VA still shows as current as of July 2026 — a veteran with no dependents receives $180.42 a month at 10%, $356.66 at 20%, $552.47 at 30%, $795.84 at 40%, $1,132.90 at 50%, $1,435.02 at 60%, $1,808.45 at 70%, $2,102.15 at 80%, $2,362.30 at 90%, and $3,938.58 at 100%.

Two features of that table are worth noticing. The steps are not evenly spaced, and the jump from 90% to 100% is by far the largest — which is why the difference between a combined value of 94 and a combined value of 95 can be financially enormous. Separately, dependents only start to matter at 30%. At a 10% or 20% rating, the payment does not increase for a dependent spouse, child or parent. At 30% and above, additional amounts are added for dependents.

These figures change. VA states it is required by law to match the percentage of cost-of-living adjustments made to Social Security benefits. The Social Security Administration announced a 2.8 percent COLA on October 24, 2025, which took effect for Social Security beneficiaries in January 2026 and corresponds to the current VA rates effective December 1, 2025. The next adjustment is expected to be announced in the fall of 2026. Treat any dollar figure you read anywhere — including this page — as a snapshot, and check VA's current rate table before relying on it.

A rating does more than set a payment. VA health care priority groups are tied to it: a service-connected disability rated 50% or more places a veteran in Priority Group 1, 30% or 40% in Priority Group 2, and 10% or 20% in Priority Group 3. Those groups include other qualifying categories too — Priority Group 1 also covers veterans VA has rated unemployable and Medal of Honor recipients, and Priority Group 3 also covers former prisoners of war, Purple Heart recipients, and veterans discharged for a disability incurred or aggravated in the line of duty.

A permanent and total rating — VA's term for a disability rated 100% disabling that is not expected to improve — can open two family benefits, each with its own extra conditions. Survivors' and Dependents' Educational Assistance (Chapter 35) requires that the veteran be permanently and totally disabled from a service-connected disability, and it carries conditions on the dependent: a child must give up Dependency and Indemnity Compensation payments while using it, and a spouse's eligibility generally ends on divorce or remarriage, with limited exceptions. CHAMPVA, the health care program for certain family members, requires the same permanent and total rating and additionally requires that the family member not be eligible for TRICARE.

Being paid at 100% without a 100% rating: unemployability

A veteran who cannot secure or follow a substantially gainful occupation because of service-connected disabilities may be paid at the 100% rate through what VA calls total disability based on individual unemployability, or TDIU. It is a way to be paid at the 100% rate without a 100% schedular rating.

The rating thresholds are specific. If there is only one qualifying disability, it must be ratable at 60 percent or more. If there are two or more, at least one must be ratable at 40 percent or more, with enough additional disability to bring the combined rating to 70 percent or more.

Three qualifications keep people from misreading those numbers. First, meeting the percentages is not by itself enough — you must also actually be unable to secure or follow substantially gainful employment because of the service-connected disabilities. Second, the percentages are more reachable than they look, because the regulation treats certain groups as a single disability for this test: disabilities of one or both upper extremities or one or both lower extremities, disabilities resulting from a common cause or a single accident, disabilities affecting a single body system, multiple injuries incurred in action, and multiple disabilities incurred as a prisoner of war. Third, working a little does not automatically disqualify you — marginal employment, which the regulation ties to earned annual income at or below the Census Bureau poverty threshold for one person, does not count as substantially gainful.

There is also a path for veterans who do not meet the percentages at all. The regulation directs rating boards to refer those cases to the Director of Compensation Service for extra-schedular consideration where the veteran is nonetheless unemployable because of service-connected disabilities. VA notes that in certain circumstances, such as frequent hospitalization, you may qualify with lower ratings.

Static ratings, future exams, and how reductions actually happen

When VA assigns a rating, it also decides whether to schedule a routine future examination. Reexaminations are requested whenever VA determines it needs to verify either the continued existence or the current severity of a disability — generally where it is likely a disability has improved, or where evidence suggests a material change or that the current rating may be incorrect. If your decision mentions a future exam date, that is what it means. A rating described as "static" is one VA has established is not expected to change, and no periodic reexamination is scheduled for it.

The regulation lists specific situations where no periodic future examination will be requested: when the disability is established as static; when the findings and symptoms have persisted without material improvement for five years or more; where the disability from disease is permanent in character with no likelihood of improvement; in cases of veterans over 55 years of age, except under unusual circumstances; when the rating is a prescribed scheduled minimum rating; and where a combined disability evaluation would not be affected even if a future exam resulted in a reduced evaluation.

A reduction that would actually cut your money cannot happen silently. Where a lower evaluation would result in a reduction or discontinuance of compensation payments currently being made, VA must first prepare a rating proposing the reduction that sets out all material facts and reasons, and notify you at your latest address of record. You then have 60 days to present additional evidence showing that payments should continue at their present level, and 30 days from the date of the notice to request a predetermination hearing — a hearing held before VA makes the reduction final. If the reduction is finalized, it takes effect on the last day of the month in which a 60-day period from the notice of the final rating action expires. Note the limit on this protection: it is triggered by a drop in payment, so a change that leaves your combined rating and payment unchanged may not come with a proposal letter.

There are also evidentiary limits on reductions. An examination less full and complete than the one the rating was based on cannot be used as the basis for a reduction. And VA must consider whether the evidence makes it reasonably certain that any improvement will be maintained under the ordinary conditions of life — a good day in an exam room is not proof of lasting improvement.

Protected ratings: the 5-year, 10-year and 20-year rules

Ratings become progressively harder to disturb the longer they have been in place. These are often described as the 5-, 10- and 20-year rules, and they protect different things.

The 5-year rule is about stability. The regulation's stabilization protections apply to ratings that have continued for long periods at the same level — five years or more. For those ratings, VA must show sustained improvement, reasonably certain to be maintained under the ordinary conditions of life, rather than a single favorable finding. Those protections do not apply to disabilities that have not become stabilized and are likely to improve.

The 10-year rule protects service connection itself, not the percentage. Service connection that has been in effect for 10 or more years will not be severed except on a showing that the original grant was based on fraud, or where it is clearly shown from military records that the person did not have the requisite service or character of discharge. The percentage can still move up or down; the underlying link to service is locked in.

The 20-year rule protects the level. A disability continuously rated at or above a given evaluation for 20 or more years for compensation purposes will not be reduced below that evaluation except on a showing that the rating was based on fraud. Separately, and regardless of how long a rating has been in place, both the governing statute and the regulation provide that a readjustment of the rating schedule itself cannot be grounds for reducing a rating in effect on the date of the readjustment unless actual improvement in the disability is shown. That matters because VA has been modernizing the rating schedule body system by body system — a criteria change alone should not cost you an existing rating.

Protection is a floor, not a freeze. A protected rating can still be increased, other conditions can still be added, and none of these rules prevent VA from acting on fraud or correcting a clear and unmistakable error — VA's term for a mistake in a past decision so obvious and undebatable that the outcome would clearly have been different without it.

How to read a rating decision, and what to do next

A rating decision packet normally contains a cover letter and a section that lists each condition, the diagnostic code applied, the percentage assigned, and the effective date for each. There will be a separate combined evaluation figure. Read the individual lines first, then check the combined figure against the combining method described above — the individual percentages will not add up to it, and they are not supposed to.

The effective date drives back pay, so check it carefully. The general rule is that the effective date is the date VA received the claim or the date entitlement arose, whichever is later. There is an important exception for direct service connection: if the claim is received within one year after separation from service, the effective date can be as early as the day following separation. Other categories — presumptive service connection, reopened claims, claims for increase — have their own effective-date rules.

Further into the packet is the reasons-and-bases section, which lists the evidence VA considered and explains why each percentage was chosen. This is the most useful part of the document. If a treatment record, a private opinion, or a buddy statement you submitted is not listed there, VA may not have had it. If the reasoning cites a finding you disagree with — a range-of-motion measurement, a description of occupational impairment — that is the specific point to challenge, rather than simply arguing the rating is too low.

If you disagree, there are three review options: a Supplemental Claim, which requires new and relevant evidence VA did not already have; a Higher-Level Review by a more senior reviewer, who looks at the same evidence and cannot consider anything new; or a Board Appeal to a Veterans Law Judge. Higher-Level Review and Board Appeal must be requested within 1 year of the date on the decision letter. Missing that deadline does not end everything — for disability compensation, a Supplemental Claim with new and relevant evidence remains available — but filing late can cost you the earlier effective date, and therefore back pay.

Get accredited help before you file anything, and understand the fee rules. Accredited Veterans Service Organization representatives provide help on VA benefit claims for free. County or state veterans service officers do the same at no cost, though availability varies by state. By law, no individual may act as an agent or attorney in preparing, presenting or prosecuting a VA claim unless VA has recognized them for that purpose. Accredited attorneys and claims agents may charge fees only for services provided after VA has issued notice of its initial decision on the claim — not for preparing your first claim. When fees are allowed, VA presumes a fee not exceeding 20 percent of past-due benefits awarded to be reasonable where representation continued through the date of the decision awarding benefits, and presumes a fee exceeding 33 1/3 percent to be unreasonable; both presumptions can be rebutted. Separately, where VA pays a representative directly out of past-due benefits, that fee may not exceed 20 percent. "Past-due benefits" means the lump sum of back pay owed for the period before the award. Anyone demanding money to file your first claim, or a permanent cut of your monthly compensation, is outside these rules — verify accreditation through VA's official accreditation search before signing anything.

Sources

Every figure above is drawn from these official sources. Benefit rates and thresholds change — check the current official page before you act.

• VA — About disability ratings
• VA — Disability compensation
• VA — Current Veterans disability compensation rates
• VA — Combined Ratings Table (Table I), PDF
• VA — Disability compensation effective dates
• VA — Individual Unemployability
• VA — View your disability ratings
• VA — Choosing a decision review option
• VA — Get help from a VA accredited representative or VSO
• VA Office of General Counsel — Accreditation search
• VA — Health care priority groups
• VA — Survivors' and Dependents' Educational Assistance (Chapter 35)
• VA — CHAMPVA benefits
• 38 U.S.C. 1155 — Authority for schedule of ratings
• 38 U.S.C. 5901 — Prohibition against acting as claims agent without recognition
• 38 U.S.C. 5904 — Recognition of agents and attorneys; fees
• 38 CFR 4.7 — Higher of two evaluations
• 38 CFR 4.25 — Combined ratings table
• 38 CFR 4.26 — Bilateral factor
• 38 CFR 4.31 — Zero percent evaluations
• 38 CFR 4.16 — Total disability ratings based on unemployability
• 38 CFR 3.105 — Revision of decisions (reduction procedures)
• 38 CFR 3.327 — Reexaminations
• 38 CFR 3.344 — Stabilization of disability evaluations
• 38 CFR 3.400 — Effective dates, general
• 38 CFR 3.951 — Preservation of disability ratings
• 38 CFR 3.957 — Service connection (severance)
• 38 CFR 14.636 — Payment of fees for representation
• SSA — 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Fact Sheet
• eCFR — 38 CFR Part 4, Schedule for Rating Disabilities