Combined Rating Breakdown Tool
See the exact step-by-step VA whole-person math for your specific combination of ratings, not just the final number.
Last updated: 2026-07-06
The disability rating calculator gives you the final combined number — this tool shows the actual math behind it, step by step, so you can see exactly how each individual rating contributed to your total. It's particularly useful for understanding why adding a new condition at a certain percentage will or won't meaningfully move your overall rating.
- Step 1: Apply 60% to remaining 100.0% efficiency → reduces by 60.0, leaving 40.0% efficiency.
- Step 2: Apply 30% to remaining 40.0% efficiency → reduces by 12.0, leaving 28.0% efficiency.
- Step 3: Apply 10% to remaining 28.0% efficiency → reduces by 2.8, leaving 25.2% efficiency.
Why Seeing the Steps Matters
Understanding the mechanism — not just the final answer — helps you evaluate whether pursuing a new secondary condition at, say, 10% is actually worth the effort at your current combined rating, versus pursuing a claim for increase on an existing condition instead. The math behaves very differently depending on where you currently sit.
Now that you can see the math, want to see the legitimate paths to a higher rating?
See How to Increase Your RatingThe General Pattern
Ratings are sorted from highest to lowest and applied one at a time to the remaining efficiency. Each step reduces what's left by that rating's percentage of the current remaining value — which is why a 10% rating added to an already-high combined total moves the needle much less than the same 10% would if it were your only rating.
Conclusion
Once you understand which of your current ratings is doing the most work in your combined total, you're in a much better position to decide where to focus — a new secondary claim, a claim for increase, or pursuing TDIU instead.
Now that you can see the math, want to see the legitimate paths to a higher rating?
See How to Increase Your Rating