Combined rating

A combined rating is the single percentage the VA assigns when a veteran has more than one service-connected condition. Individual percentages are not added together. The VA combines them using the method and the combined ratings table at 38 CFR 4.25, then rounds the result to the nearest ten percent.

The method works from the whole person. The highest evaluation is applied first, against a body treated as fully able, which leaves a remaining efficiency. The next evaluation is applied to what remains, and so on down the list. A 50 percent evaluation and a 30 percent evaluation combine to 65 under the table, which rounds to 70. The same math is why each additional condition moves the combined figure by less as the total climbs toward 100.

The combined figure follows from the individual evaluations, and each of those follows from what the record documents about that condition. The order of combination is fixed by the evaluations themselves, so no arrangement of conditions changes what the table returns. Questions about how the VA combined a particular set of evaluations are claims work, handled by the veteran with an accredited representative or VSO, where the free VSO route is always available.