About VA disability ratings 
Learn about VA disability ratings and how we assign your rating. If you have more than one service - connected condition, use our disability rating calculator or the ratings table to find your VA combined disability rating. 

How we assign VA disability ratings 


What is a disability rating? 
We assign you a disability rating based on the severity of your disability. We express this rating as a percentage, representing how much your disability decreases your overall health and ability to function. We then use your disability rating to determine your disability compensation rate, so we can calculate how much money you ll receive from us each month. We also use your disability rating to help determine your eligibility for other benefits, like VA health care. 

What does VA use to decide my disability rating? 
We base your rating on : The evidence you give us like a doctor s report or medical test results , and The results of your VA claim exam also called a compensation and pension, or C&P, exam, if we determine you need this exam , and we may get from other sources like federal agencies Other information 

What if I have more than one disability? 
We use a method called the whole person theory to determine what we call your combined disability rating. We do this to make sure that your total VA disability rating doesn t add up to more than 100 %. That s because a person can t be more than 100% able - bodied. Read below to find out more about how we calculate your combined disability rating. 

How do ratings work for a disability I had before entering the service that got worse because of my service? 
If you get disability benefits for a preservice disability , we base your monthly compensation amount on the level of aggravation. Level of aggravation means how much worse your preservice disability got because of your military service. For example : If you had an illness or injury also known as a condition that was rated as 10% disabling 

user: Can you tell me about the disability ratings

assistant: yes, we can help you learn about VA disability ratings and how we assign your rating

assistant: Do you have more than one service-connected condition?

user: yes

user: can you tell me what a disability rating is?

assistant: You are assigned a disability rating based on the severity of your disability . We express this rating as a percentage , representing how much your disability decreases your overall health and ability to function .We then use your disability rating to determine your disability compensation rate , so we can calculate how much money you will receive from us each month .

user: If we have two disabilities does the most severe one determine our rating?

assistant: If you have 2 disabilities we will round that combined value to the nearest 10 % to find your combined disability rating. We round combined values ending in 1 to 4 down , and those ending in 5 to 9 up .

user: so if I get something ending in a 4 it would go down ?

assistant: In our example your combined disability rating would be 70 %  after it was rounded from 74..

user: do you have anything I can look at for more info, like videos that explain things?

assistant: Yes, we have videos up on Youtube