Compensation for service-related conditions

Service-connected injuries and conditions for which you can receive compensation can be either physical or mental. But there’s no one-sizefits-all when it comes to how much compensation you can receive. Whether it’s hearing loss or depression, or cancer or PTSD, each one has a different rating, which results in a different level of compensation.

The Department of Veterans Affairs disability rating you are assigned after being approved is based on the severity of your condition. Your compensation will be based partially on that and partially on whatever else might increase that compensation, such as having a family or a disabled spouse, or if you’ve suffered severe disability or loss of limbs.

And from there it gets even more complicated.

It’s possible for your rating to change over time if your condition worsens, but even when combining multiple ratings (conditions) it’s nearly impossible to reach 100% disability.

Increasing your final rating by combining smaller ratings (for multiple conditions) is difficult because there are rules, charts and math to consider. There is combining the numbers, converting, rounding up or down to the nearest 10. For example, you can’t take a 20% rating and a 60% rating and come up with an 80% rating. In this case, the actual combined rating equates to 68%, but it’s rounded up to 70% ... because the chart says so.

Combining three or more disabilities is even more complicated. And nowhere on that chart is a rating of 100% disability.

A 100% disability rating, if given, can be temporary (until your condition clears up or gets better) or permanent if given for severe conditions such as blindness or loss of limb. But reaching that level without those severe conditions is difficult enough that whole legal websites across the internet are devoted to that one effort: getting a 100% disability rating.

To wade through the disability compensation ratings and benefits, go to www.benefits.va.gov/compensation/rates-index. asp#howcalc.

The ratings calculator can be found at www.va.gov/disability/ about-disability-ratings.

The VA is currently taking 158 days to make decisions about claims.