Posted on Oct 29, 2021
How does the VA settle on your disability percentage?
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I was drawing 20% for my disability. I was then awarded 30% for another disability. Why is that not 50% instead of the 40% they, the VA settled on.
Posted in these groups: 
Disability
Disability
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 11
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SPC Ronnie Cannon ratings are not added. The first rating of 20% is taken from 100%, which leaves 80%. The next 30% is taken from the remaining 80% and so on. Usually the highest rating is taken first and the rest follow. It is an extremely difficult rating scale to understand. SGT Robert Pryor was a VSO and finally assisted me in understanding this. I am sure he would be willing to help you!
Nancy
Nancy
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As everyone has mentioned, it is VA Math. SPC Nancy Greene was spot on with her explanation. 30 percent leaves 70 percent. The next 20 percent is of the REMAINING 70 percent - or 14 percent. Add the 14 to the 30 for 44. And VA always rounds to the nearest 10.
Here is how it breaks down for me (dropping everything past first decimal for ease of writing)
50, 40, 30, 30, 20, 20, 20, 10,10, 10, 10, 0 (recently reduced from 10).
rating...........value........running total......."remaining body"
50.................50...............50 .....................50
40% of 50......20...............70......................30
30% of 30......9.................79......................21
30% of 21......6.3..............85.3...................14.7
20% of 14.7....2.9.............88.2....................11.8
20% of 11.8....2.4.............90.6....................9.4
20% of 9.4.....1.9..............92.5....................7.5
10% of 7.5......0.8.............93.3....................6.7
10% of 6.7......0.7..............94.......................6
10% of 6.........0.6.............94.6....................5.4
10% of 5.4......0.5.............95.1.....................4.9
I rate out at a total of 95.1%, (95.061929, to be exact) which rounds to 100. I am given the 100% disability rate. If you add everything together, I am 250% disabled, but obviously no one can be more than 100% disabled.
For you to reach the "magic" 50% you need one thing very wrong with you, two things moderately wrong with you, or many things minorly wrong with you (one 50, two 30s, three 20s, or six 10s). To get to the elusive 100, you need a whole lotta wrong - and you SHOULD need a whole lotta wrong.
Here is how it breaks down for me (dropping everything past first decimal for ease of writing)
50, 40, 30, 30, 20, 20, 20, 10,10, 10, 10, 0 (recently reduced from 10).
rating...........value........running total......."remaining body"
50.................50...............50 .....................50
40% of 50......20...............70......................30
30% of 30......9.................79......................21
30% of 21......6.3..............85.3...................14.7
20% of 14.7....2.9.............88.2....................11.8
20% of 11.8....2.4.............90.6....................9.4
20% of 9.4.....1.9..............92.5....................7.5
10% of 7.5......0.8.............93.3....................6.7
10% of 6.7......0.7..............94.......................6
10% of 6.........0.6.............94.6....................5.4
10% of 5.4......0.5.............95.1.....................4.9
I rate out at a total of 95.1%, (95.061929, to be exact) which rounds to 100. I am given the 100% disability rate. If you add everything together, I am 250% disabled, but obviously no one can be more than 100% disabled.
For you to reach the "magic" 50% you need one thing very wrong with you, two things moderately wrong with you, or many things minorly wrong with you (one 50, two 30s, three 20s, or six 10s). To get to the elusive 100, you need a whole lotta wrong - and you SHOULD need a whole lotta wrong.
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SFC Casey O'Mally
SSG Doug Morrison What is the point of that comment? That was a completely needless and unprovoked insult.
And very inaccurate.
(Additionally, this is simple arithmetic, which is grade school math, so irrelevant to your comment. It is literally nothing more than multiplication, addition, and subtraction.)
And very inaccurate.
(Additionally, this is simple arithmetic, which is grade school math, so irrelevant to your comment. It is literally nothing more than multiplication, addition, and subtraction.)
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SSG Doug Morrison
SFC Casey O'Mally wasn’t intended as an insult but a redirection on how the disability calculator is complicated to many and we can now understand and explain this when any of us might had had a harder challenge in high school. If anything it was a compliment on how well they explained it vs the later. You then missed my comment prior speaking how challenging this is and gets even more challenging when adding the bilateral factor, and concluding if you need help then to reach out and I’d be happy to assist. I’ll be happy to state my humor didn’t come through in text, but don’t miscue my intend. Happy to apologize if perceived anything other
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SFC Casey O'Mally
SSG Doug Morrison understood. Sometimes humor is hard to convey in text. Thanks for the explanation.
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Magic. Bad magic at that. Monkrys throwing darts would produce a more accurate number.
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