This is one of the questions our team hears more than almost any other: why don't my ratings just add up? You've got a 30% and a 40%, and somehow the VA didn't hand you 70%. It's not a mistake. It's how the math actually works, and once you see it laid out, it makes a lot more sense.
The VA rates disabilities based on how much they reduce your overall ability to function, not as a simple stack of numbers. If ratings just added together, it would be mathematically possible to pass 100% with enough conditions, which doesn't reflect how a body actually works. Instead, the VA uses something called the combined ratings table, which applies each new rating to whatever "whole person" percentage you have left after the ratings before it.
Say you have a 30% rating and a 40% rating. The VA doesn't add those. It starts by treating you as 100% able, then applies the first rating: 30% disabled means you're now considered 70% able. Then it applies the second rating to what's left: 40% of that remaining 70% is 28%, so you're now considered about 42% able, which comes out to a combined 58%. That gets rounded to the nearest 10, landing at 60%, not 70%.
The order and size of your individual ratings changes the math too, which is part of why two Veterans with what looks like the same conditions can land on different combined totals. If you'd rather see it worked out with your own numbers than do the table math by hand, our VA disability rating calculator walks through it step by step.
This is the myth worth busting directly: "my buddy got a higher rating than me for the same thing" isn't proof that anyone made a mistake. Combined ratings depend on the exact mix of conditions, the order they were rated in, and details specific to each person's file and evidence. Two Veterans with the same diagnosis can walk away with different numbers, and both can be correctly calculated.
It's an understandable thing to compare, but it's rarely an apples-to-apples comparison, even when the conditions sound identical on paper.
Before assuming an error, it's worth asking: are all of your conditions actually rated, is the severity level accurate for how the condition affects you today, and does your combined total actually reflect the math above. Running your current ratings back through the calculator is a fast way to double-check that last part. If the answer to any of those is unclear, that's a much more useful place to start than comparing your number to someone else's.
None of this means every rating is automatically correct just because the math checks out. It's worth a real second look if a condition you've been treated for isn't rated at all, if the severity level on file doesn't match what you're actually dealing with day to day, or if a secondary condition, one that developed because of an already service-connected condition, was never submitted. Those are legitimate reasons to revisit a rating. "My buddy's number looked different" generally isn't.
Combined ratings confuse a lot of Veterans, and that's by design of the system, not because anyone's missing something obvious. Our team goes through every file in fine-tooth-comb detail, checking that the math, the evidence, and the severity levels actually line up with what's really going on, not just what's easiest to process quickly.
We're not VA accredited, and we don't file or represent claims before the VA. What we do is walk Veterans through exactly how their own number was calculated, and whether it reflects where they're really at. If you've been staring at your combined rating wondering if it's right, our FAQs page covers more of what we hear most, or we're glad to look at your specific file directly.
Every file is different, and understanding your math doesn't guarantee a higher number. But it does mean you're working from an accurate picture instead of a comparison to someone else's paperwork.
👉 Have us take a look at your rating