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How Is Military Disability Pay Calculated – That being said, don’t worry! You will be fine! We will help you step by step in VA Math with some examples. You should now feel very relaxed and ready to tackle VA Math.
Let’s start from the beginning. What is VA Math? VA Math is the math used to combine the military disability rating of multiple conditions to give a veteran a single overall or “combined” rating. In other words, if a person has more than one condition that qualifies for military disability, each rating is combined (note the key word here is “combined” not “added”) together to give an overall rating using VA Math. . A single rating is then used to determine the exact type and amount of military disability benefits the veteran receives.
How Is Military Disability Pay Calculated
So here’s how VA Math works. Each condition is a percentage of the service member’s disability. Taken together, however, each percentage is not a percentage of the total service member, but rather a percentage of what remains after subtracting other percentages. do you have that No? Here is an example:
Military Disability Benefits
Billy’s entire body is equal to 100%. Suppose Billy has rated three conditions. The first is the knee injury which is rated at 30%. The second is a shoulder injury. The last one is the back injury with a rating of 10%. Instinct would suggest that the combined valuation would be 60% (30 + 20 + 10 = 60). Unfortunately, that is not the case with VA Math.
Start with the highest rating first, 30%. This rating is then subtracted from the 100% total body rating. Only 70% of the entire body remains now. So instead of simply subtracting 20 from 20% of the shoulder, you can subtract only 20% from the remaining 70, which is 14 (0.2 x 70 = 14). 70 minus 14 is 56. Now, since only 14 has been subtracted from the whole body, only 14 is added to the total combined rating. (Take a deep breath. Following the chart below may help…)
Now for the last 10%. Again, we can only remove 10% of what is left of the whole body. Thus, 10% of 56 is 5.6 (0.1 x 56 = 5.6). 56 minus 5.6 is 50.4. And again, since only 5.6 has been subtracted from the whole body, only 5.6 is added to the combined rating. So far, Billy’s rating is 30% + 14% + 5.6% = 49.6%.
After all terms are tallied, the combined rating is rounded up to a whole 10. Therefore, 49.6% is 50% of total disability.
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Do you now have VA Math? If your answer is No, take a pencil and paper and walk through the example above. It really helps to do the steps yourself. If your answer is Yes, great! More to come.
According to the veteran, the list of requirements can be quite long at times, making the VA Math even more confusing. So here is a more complex example. Just remember to follow the example format above and focus on one condition at a time.
VA Math time! Add the ratings from highest to lowest, in whatever order they appear in the Rating Decision, as follows:
Did you get it now? Well, we’re sure you’re doing great, and if this was an elementary math class, we’d give you a smiley face sticker, but there’s one last kink to put in the VA Math equation.
Veterans Disability Rating Calculator
An additional 10% is added to the VA Math equation (the “Bilateral Factor”) if the veteran has both arms or both legs for both condition ratings.
Note: A Bilateral Factor is added when both arms or both legs have a rated condition, even if one of them is only 0%.
So if both the right knee condition and the left knee condition are rated, you get an extra 10%. The purpose of the bilateral factor is to consider that if you have a problem in your right leg, a problem in your left leg will make it worse and vice versa. It is easier to deal with a situation if the opposite part of your body compensates.
As such, the conditions do not have to be the same for the bilateral factor to apply. If you have a left hip condition and a right foot condition, you still get that extra 10% because each condition affects the opposite lower extremity. If there are four conditions, one affecting each of the four extremes, then all four ratings are combined before the bilateral factor is calculated and added.
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Here’s the VA Math catch: The key to adding that extra 10% is not 10% as if it were another condition, but 10% of the combined rating of two (or more) bilateral conditions. When these conditions are combined, 10% of this value is added, and the set of bilateral conditions is treated as a single condition and combined with any other condition. (We already agreed that whoever thought this was nuts.)
If a two-way factor is added, always calculate the two-way factor with its terms first, then rank the remaining terms (combined two-way terms now count as a single term) from highest to lowest rating and continue with normal VA Math.
So if Sally has three conditions, 20% right foot, 10% left, and 40% back, the foot conditions would combine first since they are bilateral, even though the back condition is higher. The bilateral factor is then added to the combined rating of foot conditions. This rating is rounded to the nearest whole number and then becomes the rating of a single bilateral condition, which is then combined with the remaining background conditions.
As you can see, since all ratings are rounded to the nearest 10 at the end, the bilateral factor may not be very helpful in raising the overall rating. In this case, Sally would have received 60% even without the bilateral factor. But in other cases the difference can be critical. Consider the example below, which is slightly different from Sally’s case.
Va Service Connected Disability Compensation Rate Charts
Marcus has three conditions, 20% right shoulder, 20% left arm, and 10% back. The two arm conditions are first combined, and then a bilateral factor is added to their combined rating. This rating is rounded to the nearest whole number and then becomes the rating of a single bilateral condition, which is then combined with the background condition.
Without the bipartisan factor, Marcus’ terms would combine to 43%, rounding the final rating to 40%. So the bilateral factor not only got Marcus a 10% higher rating, but also pushed him to a 50% rating that qualifies him for the CRDP. That’s awesome! However, if you have two bilateral conditions, you get that extra 10%. Congratulations
That’s it. You passed your VA Math class. If you haven’t already, go to Find Your Terms to practice your VA Math! Whoah!
VA Math is the math used to combine ratings from multiple conditions to give a veteran a single overall rating.
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If you have only one medical condition that qualifies for disability, no, you do not need VA Math. However, if you have multiple conditions, you will need to use this math to combine your conditions to get your overall rating.
Each condition is a percentage of the service member’s disability. Taken together, however, each percentage is not a percentage of the total service member, but rather a percentage of what remains after subtracting other percentages. Be sure to follow our examples to fully understand this concept.
The VA needed a way to combine ratings from multiple conditions to arrive at an overall rating for the veteran. The VA Math was created to combine ratings to reflect additional conditions in a way that minimizes the impact on a veteran’s overall functioning and ability to work.
A bilateral factor is an additional 10% that can be factored into your equation if you have two or more conditions affecting opposite limbs (ie, legs, arms). The idea is that if you have one condition in your right leg and one in your left, they will make each other worse and eventually cause a worse disability.
Can You Receive Va Disability And Military Retirement Pay?
To find your overall combined rating, you need to use VA Math. Your combined rating is then used to assign your monthly payment amount using the VA Disability Table.
The VA has calculators that do VA Math, so it would be very rare for the combined rating to be wrong, but not impossible (although we’ve never seen it). However, if it does happen to you, you can call your Regional VA and see if they can fix it through their system.
No The bilateral factor only applies if the opposite limb is involved. Two legs or two arms. One arm and one leg condition are not considered bilateral.
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