The Veterans Affairs Department or VA as it’s colloquially known doesn’t have a reputation for its’ ease of use. In fact, it’s infamous for being a bit of a maze to maneuver through. Forever under construction by each new administration. So when you or a loved one needs the VA it’s natural for the idea to feel somewhat daunting.
Veterans’ disability benefits are just one of the very important ways the United States has committed to taking care of its military men and women. These benefits can supplement veterans’ post-military income or they can be their entire livelihoods. Benefits vary depending on the severity of the service-related injuries.
If you or someone you love is getting ready to file for disability benefits from the VA, and you don’t know where to start a VA disability calculator can be a helpful tool. To understand how a VA disability calculator works it’s helpful to understand more about what qualifies a veteran for disability benefits, how the VA rates service-related injuries, and how those ratings are used to assign disability benefits.
What Qualifies You For VA Disability Benefits?
To qualify for VA disability benefits, you or your loved one has to have served on active duty, active duty for training, or inactive duty training, and receive a disability rating for a service-connected condition. Service-connected conditions include:
- Conditions you can link to an illness or injury that occurred while serving in the military
- An illness or injury that predates military service, but was made worse by time serving in the military
- A disability that is in some way related to active-duty service, even if it didn’t manifest until after service ended
- A long-lasting or chronic illness that appears within a year of discharge from the military
- An illness that was caused by time spent in captivity or as a prisoner of war
- An illness linked to toxic chemicals, hazardous materials of other contaminants
How Does the VA Rate Disability Claims?
When a veteran applies for disability benefits their conditions are rated by a review board. Each condition is evaluated according to medical and service records and given a rating in increments of 10% from 0% to 100%. Not all injuries qualify for a rating up to 100%. However, if there are multiple rated conditions the VA will take each injury into account. In order to fairly assess the total of each veteran’s disability the VA makes calculations based on their “whole person theory” to quantify how the conditions accrue up to a total of no more than 100%.
How Do Disability Ratings Effect Benefits?
According to the VA’s schedule of benefits, a single veteran with no dependents will be provided with the following benefits per month based on their disability rating.
- 0% disability rating: $0.00
- 10% disability rating: $144.14
- 20% disability rating: $284.93
- 30% disability rating: $441.35
- 40% disability rating: $635.77
- 50% disability rating: $905.04
- 60% disability rating: $1,146.39
- 70% disability rating: $1,444.71
- 80% disability rating: $1,679.35
- 90% disability rating: $1,887.18
- 100% disability rating: $3,146.42
Each additional family member including children, a spouse, or dependent parents increases the per month benefit amount.
Now that you have some basic knowledge about what qualifies as a service-related injury, how the VA rates disability claims, and what benefits you can receive based on those ratings you can feel confident in understanding how a VA disability calculator works and how it can help you prepare to file your claim. If you’re still not sure what your next step should be try the VA disability calculator from Berry Law. It’s a well-designed and easy-to-use tool that will estimate a combined disability percentage, and even give you an approximate idea of what that percentage means in terms of monthly disability benefit payment amounts.
