VA does not add your individual disability percentages together. Instead, it uses a formula found in 38 CFR 4.25, often called the Combined Ratings Table. The process starts with your highest-rated condition, then applies each subsequent rating to the remaining percentage of "whole person" efficiency, not to the original 100 percent. For example, a 50 percent rating combined with a 40 percent rating does not equal 90 percent; it equals 70 percent, because the 40 percent is applied to the 50 percent of capacity that remains after the first rating.
Ratings are always combined in order from highest to lowest, and the running total is rounded to the nearest 10 only at the very end, not after each step. This is why stacking several 10 percent and 20 percent ratings for different joints or systems can still land well below what simple addition would suggest.
Official 2026 VA monthly compensation, including the 2.8% COLA increase.
Dependent add-ons start at a 30% rating. Child-only and dependent-parent rates: see the full 2026 pay chart.
| Rating | Monthly (2026, incl. 2.8% COLA) |
|---|---|
| 10% | $180.42 |
| 20% | $356.66 |
| 30% | $552.47 |
| 40% | $795.84 |
| 50% | $1,132.90 |
| 60% | $1,435.02 |
| 70% | $1,808.45 |
| 80% | $2,102.15 |
| 90% | $2,362.30 |
| 100% | $3,938.58 |
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Analyze my claim free →Another factor that changes the math is the bilateral factor under 38 CFR 4.26. When a veteran has ratable conditions affecting both arms, both legs, or paired skeletal muscles (such as cubital tunnel syndrome in both arms, or knee conditions in both knees), those paired ratings are combined together first, and then an additional 10 percent of that combined value is added before the result is folded into the overall combination. This can push a combined rating higher than the standard table alone would predict, and it is a common source of confusion when veterans try to replicate VA's number using a simple online calculator that does not account for bilateral pairings correctly.
Finally, VA rounds only the final combined number to the nearest multiple of 10, and mental health ratings, systemic conditions, and orthopedic ratings are all combined using the same table regardless of body system.
If your manual math and VA's decision letter disagree, request or review the rating decision's "Combined Rating Evaluation" section, which normally shows the step-by-step order VA used, and compare it against the official 38 CFR 4.25 table and the bilateral factor rule in 4.26 rather than a third-party calculator.
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