VA disability rates 2026 and VA math, step by step

How VA combines ratings: the whole-person method

VA treats a person as 100% efficient before any disability. The most severe rating comes off first. Each next rating is applied only to the efficiency that is left, not to the original 100.

The regulation’s own illustration: a 60% disability leaves a person 40% efficient. A further 30% disability takes 30% of that remaining 40, which is 12, so the person is 72% disabled. That result is printed in Table I, the combined ratings table, where the row for 60 meets the column for 30.

Here is the same method with 50%, 30% and 20%, step by step:

1. 50% first. 50% disabled leaves 50% efficient.
2. Then 30%. 30% of the remaining 50 is 15. 50 + 15 = 65.
3. Then 20%. 20% of the remaining 35 is 7. 65 + 7 = 72, leaving 28% efficiency.
4. Round once. 72 rounds to the nearest 10: 70%.

Two rules in 4.25 keep the result exact. The ratings are arranged strictly by severity, largest first. And the combined value carried from one step to the next is the whole number printed in Table I, so you never carry decimals forward. Table I covers combined values from 19 to 94 against single ratings from 10 to 90; its 684 cells all follow the same calculation, rounded to a whole number, which is how our VA rating calculator reproduces it.

Rounding: once, and last

Only the final combined value is rounded. It goes to the nearest number divisible by 10, and a value ending in 5 goes up. Section 4.25(b) says this conversion is “done only once per rating decision,” after all disabilities are combined.

Adding a 10% rating to 50, 30 and 20 moves the combined value only from 72 to 75, but that is enough to cross the rounding line, so the rating goes from 70% to 80%. In the other direction, two 30% ratings and a 20% combine to 61, which rounds down to 60%.

The bilateral factor in brief

When a veteran has a compensable disability (rated 10% or more) on both arms, both legs or paired skeletal muscles, 38 CFR 4.26 adds a bonus before anything else is combined:

1. Combine the left and right ratings the usual way.
2. Add 10% of that combined value (added, not combined).
3. Treat the result as one rating and put it in order of severity with the rest.

The regulation’s example has 60%, 20% and two bilateral 10% ratings. The two 10s combine to 19; adding 1.9 gives 21. Then 60 and 21 combine to 68, and 68 and 20 combine to 74, which rounds to 70%. Our calculator rounds the bilateral value to the nearest whole number, as the regulation’s example does.

Two more cases from the same rules:

• 30% left leg and 30% right leg combine to 51; adding 5.1 gives 56.1, carried as 56, which rounds to 60%.
• 20% on each arm and each leg. Section 4.26(b) says that when both arms and both legs are affected, all four extremities are combined together and the 10% is added once: 20, 20, 20 and 20 combine to 59, adding 5.9 gives 65, which rounds to 70%.

“Arms” and “legs” mean the whole upper and lower extremities, so a compensable disability of the right thigh and one of the left foot count as a pair (4.26(a)). The factor doesn’t apply when only one side is compensable (4.26(c)), and 4.26(d) tells VA to leave a bilateral disability out of the factor if that gives a more favorable combined rating. The bilateral factor guide has more worked examples.

A typo in VA.gov’s copy of Table I

VA’s “About disability ratings” page (last updated November 5, 2024) reprints Table I for veterans to use by hand. In the row for a combined value of 86 and the column for an 80% rating, that page prints 91. The arithmetic gives 97: a value of 86 leaves 14% efficiency, 80% of 14 is 11.2, and 86 + 11.2 = 97.2, which is 97. The table in the eCFR prints 97. If you combine by hand with VA.gov’s table, check that cell; our calculator uses the regulation’s method, not the web copy.

2026 VA disability compensation rates

The rates VA pays now took effect on December 1, 2025, after a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). Two rules shape the table, both stated on VA’s rate page:

• 10% and 20% are flat. A veteran rated 10% gets $180.42 a month and one rated 20% gets $356.66, with or without a spouse, child or parent.
• From 30% up, dependents raise the rate. VA’s table has a row for each combination of spouse, children and dependent parents, plus “added amounts” for each additional child under 18, each child 18 to 23 in school, and a spouse who receives Aid and Attendance.

So the veteran with 50%, 30% and 20% from the first section, now rated 70%, would see $1,808.45 a month alone, $1,961.45 with a spouse, and $2,074.45 with a spouse and one child under 18, which is $24,893.40 over 12 months at that rate. A dependent parent has its own rows: at 70%, a veteran with a spouse and one dependent parent and no children gets $2,084.45.

The jump from 90% to 100% is the largest in the table. Alone, 90% pays $2,362.30 and 100% pays $3,938.58, a difference of $1,576.28 a month. Under the rounding rule, a combined value of 95 or more becomes 100%, and one of 94 becomes 90%.

VA’s own page shows how the added amounts stack. A veteran rated 70% with a spouse and three children under 18, whose spouse receives Aid and Attendance, starts from the spouse-and-one-child rate of $2,074.45, adds $76 for each of the two other children and $141 for the spouse’s Aid and Attendance: $2,367.45 a month.

Children 18 to 23 in school, dependent parents and special monthly compensation change the number further; the dependents, TDIU and SMC-K guide covers them, and the VA disability pay calculator adds them up.

How the December 1 COLA works, and what is pending for 2026

VA compensation rates don’t rise automatically. For December 1, 2025, the Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2025 (Public Law 119-42) told VA to raise the rates by the same percentage as Social Security benefits. The Social Security Administration (SSA) had announced 2.8% for 2026, so VA applied 2.8% to its rates effective December 1, 2025, and published the new amounts in the Federal Register on February 17, 2026. VA’s rate page was last updated on December 2, 2025.

For December 1, 2026, nothing is final (the December 2026 COLA guide has the current status). As of October 6, 2026, SSA’s COLA page still showed its information for 2026, with no newer COLA posted, and VA’s rate page still showed the rates effective December 1, 2025. Until VA publishes new tables, every figure in this guide is the December 1, 2025 rate, and our calculators mark any month from December 2026 on as not yet published instead of guessing. We will add the new rates when VA posts them and log the change on the change log.

TDIU and back pay, in one paragraph each

Total disability based on individual unemployability (TDIU). Under 38 CFR 4.16(a), VA may assign a total (100%) rating when service-connected disabilities leave a veteran unable to secure or follow a substantially gainful occupation, and the ratings meet a percentage test: one disability at 60% or more, or two or more disabilities with at least one at 40% or more and a combined rating of 70% or more. The 50%, 30% and 20% example meets the percentage part (one rating is at least 40%, and the combined rating is 70%). For the single-60% or single-40% test, 4.16(a) also lets VA treat some groups as one disability, such as disabilities of one or both arms or legs (including the bilateral factor), disabilities from a common cause or a single accident, and disabilities of a single body system. The percentages are only half of the rule: VA also has to find the veteran can’t keep substantially gainful work, and 4.16(b) allows referral for veterans who don’t meet the percentages. VA decides both parts.

When payments start. Under 38 CFR 3.31, VA can’t pay for any period before the first day of the calendar month after the month an award became effective. An award effective March 14, 2025, is paid from April 1, 2025. Under the same section, the veteran is treated as receiving benefits from the award’s effective date for other VA purposes even though payment starts later. Each month is paid at the rate in force for that month, so a long wait for a decision can cross a December 1 rate change. The VA back pay estimator lays out the months, and VA back pay rules walks through the effective date, the first payment month and the rate steps.

Check your VA math in seven steps

This is general information, not legal, tax, financial or medical advice. VA decides ratings and payments; the steps below only reproduce the arithmetic on a decision you already have.

1. List every rating on your decision. Set aside 0% ratings: they don’t change the combined value, though they can matter for other benefits.
2. Find bilateral pairs. If both arms, both legs or paired skeletal muscles each have a compensable rating, combine those first, add 10% of the result, round to a whole number, and treat it as one rating.
3. Sort from largest to smallest.
4. Combine one at a time. Subtract the value so far from 100, take the next rating’s percentage of that remainder, and add it. Keep the whole-number Table I value at each step.
5. Round once, at the end, to the nearest 10, with 5 rounding up.
6. Find your monthly rate. At 10% or 20% the rate is flat. From 30% up, pick the row for your spouse, children under 18 and dependent parents, then add any added amounts.
7. Compare with VA’s letter. If your result differs, possible reasons include a bilateral factor, ratings VA grouped differently, or a dependent VA hasn’t added yet. Ask VA or a free accredited representative before assuming a mistake.

Four mistakes that change the answer

• Adding instead of combining. 50 + 30 + 20 is 100, but nobody with those three ratings is rated 100% on the arithmetic alone. Each rating only acts on the efficiency left after the larger ones.
• Rounding at every step. Combining 50 and 30 gives 65. Rounding that to 70 before adding the 20% gives 76 and a final 80%. Carrying 65 forward, as 4.25 requires, gives 72 and 70%. One early rounding moved the result by a full step.
• Applying the bilateral factor last. The 10% is added to the paired-limb value before anything else is combined, then that value takes its place in the order of severity. Adding it at the end doesn’t follow 4.26.
• Expecting dependents at 10% or 20%. At those ratings VA pays one flat amount; dependents start to count at 30%.

Our VA rating calculator shows every step in words, so you can see which of these, if any, explains a gap between your own math and your decision.

Next step

Enter the ratings from your decision in the VA rating calculator. It shows each combining step, the bilateral factor when it applies, the rounding, and the monthly amount for your dependents at the rates in effect since December 1, 2025.