Veterans Tip of the Week – Combined Rating Percentage
(or VA Math 10+10=19)
The VA disability rating system is complicated, to say the least. As difficult as the claims side of the equation can be, the process by which combined ratings are calculated is so counter intuitive that it is often referred to as VA Math, where 10%=10%=19%. Let me explain how this works.
A person joins the military, and upon passing the entrance physical, is considered to be a healthy person. This health is represented by the number 100. Meaning non-disabled, 100% efficiency.
Over time, wear and tear, stress, operations, training, combat, etc. takes a toll both physically and mentally. When the person leaves the service, and is rated with VA service connected disabilities (say 3 of 30%, 20%, 10% for this example), they are represented by some number (efficiency) less than 100. VA Math then determines this representative number and the effective VA disability rating percentage.
Always start with the highest rated item, then progress to the next highest, and so on.
100x30%=30, 100-30=70 – the 70 is the efficiency after applying the 30% disability to the 100
70x20%=14, 70-14+= 56 – the 56 is the efficiency after applying the 20% disability to the 70
56x10%=5.6, 56-5.6=50.4 – the 50.4 is the efficiency after applying the 10% to the 56
Now add the percentages 30%+14%+5.6%=49.6%, and this is the combined disability rating. Or 100% efficiency-50.4% efficiency (what's left after applying each disability)=49.6%
Actually VA Disability ratings are administered in 10% increments, so 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, etc. If your calculated rating is between one of the values, 4.9 and below gets rounded down to the nearest 10%, while 5.0 and above gets rounded up to the nearest 10%. This is why it gets harder to reach 100% disability as lower percentage ratings are applied. Your combined rating has to be 95.0 or above, in order to be rounded up to 100%. A combined rating of 94.9% will get rounded down to 90%.
Here are the two online calculators I use, and the VA compensation tables (non-interactive, of course)
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As always, please feel free to PM me if you have questions regarding you VA Benefits. If I don't know the answer, we will find it together. #gogetrated
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