A VA disability rating is a percentage. It is not a medical grade and it is not a pain score. 38 C.F.R. § 4.1 says the percentage represents, as far as can practicably be determined, the average impairment in earning capacity from that disease or injury in civil occupations. The schedule in 38 C.F.R. Part 4 is the book the rater uses. You get a number from 0% to 100% in 10% increments. If you have more than one rating, VA does not add them. Two 50% ratings are not 100%. They combine on the official table to 75, which rounds to 80%.

That difference is monthly pay. On the 2026 compensation table effective December 1, 2025, a veteran alone at 80% is listed at $2,102.15. A veteran alone at 100% is listed at $3,938.58. Treating combined math as addition is how veterans expect the 100% check and receive the 80% check. This post walks through the schedule, the combined ratings table, and Individual Unemployability — which can pay at the 100% rate without a 100% schedular rating. It does not promise any percentage on your file.

What a rating is

VA's about-disability-ratings page, last updated November 5, 2024, says VA assigns a rating based on the severity of the service-connected condition and uses that rating to set monthly compensation and to help determine eligibility for other benefits, including VA health care. The evidence is the records you submit, the claim exam if VA needs one, and other information VA may get from federal sources.

The schedule is organized by diagnosis. 38 U.S.C. § 1155 is the authority. 38 C.F.R. Part 4 is the text. Each diagnostic code has criteria. A knee is not “30% because it hurts.” It is the code that matches instability, limitation of flexion, or limitation of extension, at the measurements in that code. A mental disorder is rated under the General Rating Formula on occupational and social impairment, not on the name of the stressor. Tinnitus has one code. Hearing loss has another. Sleep apnea has another. The diagnosis still has to exist before any of those codes apply.

VA's compensation-rates index page states that VA rates disability from 0% to 100% in 10% increments. 38 C.F.R. § 4.31 says that where the schedule does not provide a zero percent evaluation for a diagnostic code, a zero percent evaluation shall be assigned when the requirements for a compensable evaluation are not met. A 0% rating is a grant of service connection without current compensable severity. It can still open health-care priority and later increases. It does not pay the 10% rate.

If the disability existed before service and service made it worse, VA rates the level of aggravation — how much worse it became because of service. VA's ratings page gives the example: a condition that was 10% when you entered and became 20% because of service is compensated at the 10% difference. The current diagnosis is still in the file. The pay is for the service-made worsening.

Combined ratings: the official table, not a calculator you invent

VA calls the method the “whole person theory.” A person cannot be more than 100% able-bodied. Each rating is applied to the efficiency that remains after the more severe ratings. 38 C.F.R. § 4.25 is the regulation. VA's ratings page publishes the same table for use online.

The regulation's own example is the clearest statement of why addition fails. A person with a 60% disability is considered 40% efficient. A further 30% disability is applied to that remaining 40%, which leaves 28% efficiency. The person is 72% disabled. On the table, 60 combined with 30 is 72. That 72 is then rounded to the nearest number divisible by 10. Combined values ending in 5 are adjusted upward. 72 becomes 70%.

VA's page works a second official example. Two disabilities, 50% and 30%. Look up 50 in the left column and 30 in the top row. The intersection is 65. 65 rounds up to 70%. That is the combined rating. It is not 80%.

If there is a third disability, you do not round yet. You take the unrounded combined value and combine it with the next rating, highest remaining to lowest. VA's example: 50% and 30% combined to 65, then a third disability at 10%. 65 combined with 10 is 69. Then you round once, at the end. 69 becomes 70%. Adding 50 + 30 + 10 in your head produced 90%. The table produced 70%. That 20-point gap is the reason this post exists.

Two 10% ratings, VA's note on the same page, combine to 19%. 19 rounds to 20%. They do not combine to 20% before rounding, and they do not combine to 10%. 38 C.F.R. § 4.25(b) says disabilities from a single disease entity are rated separately, then combined, and the conversion to the nearest 10% is done only once per rating decision, after all disabilities are combined.

Bilateral conditions can receive a bilateral factor before they enter the table. That factor is a later, technical step in the same Part 4 math. It is not a reason to add the two sides and call the result the combined rating. If your decision letter shows a bilateral factor, read that line. Do not replace it with addition.

How to read your own combined rating

List every service-connected percentage on the rating sheet, highest to lowest. Combine the first two on the table. Combine that result, unrounded, with the next. Repeat until the list is done. Round once. That number is the combined rating that drives the pay table, dependent add-ons at 30% or more, and health-care priority groups.

If the letter's combined rating does not match that process, the error is in the letter or in a code you did not notice (bilateral factor, a condition rated together, a 0% that you counted as 10%). Ask for the codes, not for a rumor about “VA math.” The table is public. 38 C.F.R. § 4.25 is public. A Higher-Level Review is the lane when you think the rater misapplied the table to the ratings already assigned. A Supplemental Claim is the lane when you have new evidence that a code should be higher. They are different problems.

Do not use a third-party website that “adds” ratings unless it is implementing this table. If you cannot see 50 and 30 meeting at 65, the tool is not the official method.

Individual Unemployability: 100% pay, not a 100% schedular rating

Total disability based on individual unemployability — TDIU or IU — is how VA pays certain veterans at the 100% compensation rate when the schedular rating is less than total. 38 C.F.R. § 4.16(a) is the rule. VA's IU page, last updated April 27, 2026, says the same thing in plain words: you may be able to get compensation at the same level as a veteran who has a 100% disability rating if you cannot hold substantially gainful employment because of service-connected disability. Odd jobs (marginal employment) do not count. Marginal employment generally exists when earned annual income does not exceed the Census poverty threshold for one person. Protected or family-business work can also be marginal on the facts.

The percentage gate, unless extra-schedular referral applies, is this. One service-connected disability rated 60% or more, or two or more disabilities with at least one rated 40% or more and a combined rating of 70% or more. For that 60% or 40% “one disability” test, § 4.16(a) treats certain groups as one disability: both upper or both lower extremities (including the bilateral factor), disabilities from a common cause or a single accident, disabilities affecting a single body system, multiple injuries incurred in action, or multiple disabilities incurred as a prisoner of war.

If IU is granted, VA's page says the monthly payment changes and the disability rating stays the same. Read that twice. You are not “100% disabled” on the rating sheet. You are paid at the 100% rate. That distinction matters for some other benefits and for any later reduction or review. It is also why this post will not say IU “gives you 100%.” It can pay at the 100% rate. It is not a promise that any unemployed veteran will receive that pay. Age and non-service-connected conditions are not the reason for IU. Service-connected disability must be what prevents substantially gainful work.

If you do not meet the 60% or 70/40 percentages, § 4.16(b) says cases of veterans who are still unemployable because of service-connected disability should be submitted to the Director, Compensation Service, for extra-schedular consideration. That is a referral, not an automatic grant. Forms are VA Form 21-8940 and VA Form 21-4192.

The practical mistake that misreads the check

Veterans add 40, 30, 20, and 10, get 100 in their head, and then fight a 70% decision as if the rater “stole” 30 points. The rater used the table. The fight, if there is one, is whether each individual code is too low, whether a condition was left off, or whether IU should be considered because the veteran cannot work. Those are evidence and lane questions. They are not a request to replace § 4.25 with addition.

The other mistake is refusing to claim a second or third condition because “I am already at 80% and the next one will not matter.” Combined math still moves some files from 80 to 90, or from 90 to 100, and a new 60% or a new 40% can open the IU gate. A condition you never claim is a condition that cannot be combined.

This firm does not take a credit card from VA clients and does not pay client costs, including nexus letters. Completing a website form is not representation.

What to do with the rating sheet

List the codes and percentages. Combine them on the official table, highest to lowest, rounding once at the end. Compare that number to the combined rating on the letter. Read the 2026 pay table only after you have the combined percentage correct. If you cannot work because of service-connected disability, read § 4.16 and the two IU forms before you assume 100% schedular is the only path. If a code is wrong, choose the review lane that matches whether you have new evidence.

Disclaimer

This post is general information about veterans disability claims, appeals, and VA benefits. It is not legal advice, not a representation that The Jacks Law Group is your counsel, and not a prediction of any rating, grant, denial, effective date, or payment. No result is promised. Reading this post, starting a VA.gov form, or completing the firm's website form does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws, regulations, and VA procedures change. The sources below were opened on August 29, 2026, and should be re-checked before they are relied on.

Retain this firm

If you have a VA disability claim to file, a claim that is stuck, or a decision you intend to review, The Jacks Law Group represents veterans in disability claims and appeals. Call 702-834-6300. Completing a website form is not representation.

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Sources (opened August 29, 2026)

38 C.F.R. § 4.1, Essentials of evaluative rating, https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/38/4.1 — percentages as average impairment in earning capacity; examinations required.

38 C.F.R. § 4.25, Combined ratings table, https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/38/4.25 — 60/30 efficiency example (72%); combine highest to lowest; round once; 5s round up; official Table I.

38 C.F.R. § 4.31, Zero percent evaluations, https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/38/4.31 — 0% when compensable criteria are not met.

38 C.F.R. § 4.16, Total disability ratings based on unemployability, https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/38/4.16 — 60% or 70/40 schedular IU; what counts as one disability; extra-schedular referral in § 4.16(b); marginal employment.

VA, About disability ratings, https://www.va.gov/disability/about-disability-ratings/ — last updated November 5, 2024. Whole-person theory; official combined-table examples (50+30 = 65 → 70%; plus 10% = 69 → 70%; two 10%s = 19%); aggravation example.

VA, Current Veterans disability compensation rates, https://www.va.gov/disability/compensation-rates/veteran-rates/ — last updated December 2, 2025. 2026 Veteran-alone 80% $2,102.15 and 100% $3,938.58, effective December 1, 2025.

VA, Benefit rates — Compensation, https://benefits.va.gov/compensation/rates-index.asp — last updated June 21, 2025. Ratings in 10% increments; combined-ratings explanation.

VA, Individual Unemployability if you can't work, https://www.va.gov/disability/eligibility/special-claims/unemployability/ — last updated April 27, 2026. Pay at the 100% rate; rating stays the same; Forms 21-8940 and 21-4192.

VA, Individual Unemployability — Compensation, https://www.benefits.va.gov/compensation/claims-special-individual_unemployability.asp — 60% or 70/40; substantially gainful employment; extra-schedular path.