Veterans Disability Compensation Rates

Veterans Disability Compensation Rates — Go After the Money You Deserve

We’ll make sure you don’t miss out on any VA disability benefits

If you are applying for or receiving veterans disability benefits from the U.S. government, your objective should be to obtain every dollar you are entitled to. It is certainly what we aim for at Disabled Vets.

There is no reason to leave VA disability benefit money on the table. Our VA benefits advocates want you to have ALL of the benefits you have earned. Our advocacy group can provide close and thorough scrutiny of your medical records, as well as your views about your condition, to determine the VA benefits that may be available to you. Then we can develop a strong and persuasive claim for benefits on your behalf, and fight for you to get them

Our advocacy group has worked with many disabled vets to get them the benefits they deserve – FAST. We can do the same for you!

How the VA Calculates Payments to Disabled Military Veterans

If you are like most disabled vets, you know the government promised to take care of you if you were injured or became ill during your military service. And now, as you look for that assistance, you find lengthy and confusing explanations of benefits you may be due, plus demanding instructions for only possibly obtaining them.

Some VA rules for disability compensation are straight-forward. The amount of the basic benefit paid depends on how disabled the veteran is. The VA decides the severity of a vet’s disability based on evidence submitted as part of their claim, or that the VA obtains from military records.

The VA rates disability from 0% to 100% in 10% increments (10%, 20%, 30% etc.). However, multiple disabilities are combined and rated in a manner that is not a straight-forward process. If a veteran has one disability rated 60% and a second 20% disability, the combined rating is not 80%. Instead, the VA goes by its Combined Ratings Table, a grid that resembles the old multiplication tables from schooldays, but doesn’t always add up like you’d expect.

Do You Know What the VA Pays Disabled Military Veterans?

Disabled veterans benefits are provided as a tax-free monthly check. Cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) to the VA’s compensation rates, when provided, match Social Security COLAs.

Types of compensation available via the VA include:

Disability Compensation is paid to a veteran who has one disability or combined disabilities rated at 10% or more by the VA. The payment for the disabled veteran alone, as of 2017, ranges from $133.57¹ for 10% disability to $2,915.55¹ for 100% disability. However, additional money is available if the veteran has dependents, including:

Children (additional money per child)
Spouse
Spouse and one parent
Spouse and two parents
One parent
Two parents
Spouse requiring aide and attendance (A/A).

Special Monthly Compensation (SMC) is additional money provided if the vet needs someone like a nurse’s aide to assist with basic daily life activities (aide and attendance, or A/A), or if they have a specific disability on the order of loss of the use of a hand or leg. There are several sub-categories of the SMC (SMC-K, SMC-L, SMC-M, etc.) which are applied to specific losses and increase the monthly payment rate.

SMC-K, for example, equates to an additional $103.54¹ per month, and applies to:

The anatomical loss or loss of use of:
- One hand
- One foot
- Both buttocks (preventing the vet from maintaining unaided upright posture, or performing rising and stooping actions).
- One or more reproductive organs (absence of testicles, ovaries or other reproductive organ), quarter-loss of tissue of a single breast or both breasts in combination
- One eye (loss of use, to include specific levels of blindness).
Complete organic aphonia (constant loss of voice due to disease)
Deafness of both ears to include absence of air and bone conduction.

SMC-M, SMC-N, SMC-O, SMC-P, SMC-R and SMC-S apply to various specific combinations of amputation or loss, or loss of use, of designated extremities and/or senses, together with seriously disabling conditions and particular degrees of A/A requirements, and/or being housebound or bedridden. As befits the loss, these payments can range from approximately $3,500¹ to more than $8,000¹ for the veteran alone. Again, additional money is available for vets with dependents.

Title 38 U.S.C. Section 1151 Claims may be used to obtain compensation for death or disability “as if service-connected” that occurs while receiving VA-sponsored medical treatment, while pursuing a course of vocational rehabilitation or while participating in compensated work therapy. Payment is according to disability rating, from 10% to 100%.

Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) Grant helps eligible disabled veterans live independently in a barrier-free environment. SAH grants can be used to build or remodel a home to make it suitable for specially adapted housing. Vets may also apply the grant against the unpaid principal mortgage balance of an adapted home already acquired without the assistance of a VA grant. Up to three grants are available with a maximum total grant of $77,307¹. Those eligible are vets with any of these disabilities:

Loss of or loss of use of two limbs (both arms or legs, or an arm and leg)
Blindness in both eyes having only light perception, plus loss of or loss of use of one leg
The loss of or loss of use of one lower leg together with residuals of organic disease or injury
Certain severe burns
The loss, or loss of use of one or more lower extremities due to service on or after September 11, 2001, which so affects the functions of balance or propulsion as to preclude ambulating without the aid of braces, crutches, canes or a wheelchair

Special Housing Adaptation (SHA) Grant helps veterans with certain service-connected disabilities adapt or buy a home to accommodate their disability. SHA grants may be used to adapt a home the vet already occupies, or to adapt a home the vet intends to buy, or to buy an adapted home. Up to three grants are available with a maximum total grant of $15,462¹. Those eligible are vets with any of these disabilities:

Blindness in both eyes with 20/200 visual acuity or less
Loss of or loss of use of both hands
Certain severe burn injuries
Certain severe respiratory injuries.

Temporary Residence Assistance (TRA) Grant may be available to veterans eligible for SAH/SHA grants who are or will be temporarily residing in a home owned by a family member. The maximum amount available to adapt a family member’s home for the vet eligible for the SAH grant is $33,937¹ and for the SHA grant is $6,059¹.

Home Improvements and Structural Alterations (HISA) Grant is available assistance for any home improvement necessary for the continuation of treatment or for disability access to the vet’s home and essential lavatory and sanitary facilities. Veterans with service-connected disabilities may obtain up to $6,800¹. (Vets with non-service-connected disabilities may obtain up to $2,000¹.)

Additionally, disabled vets with certain condition may obtain such benefits as:

Automobile Allowance, a one-time allowance to purchase a new or used car to accommodate a service-connected disability.
Birth Defects/Spina Bifida allowance paid for children with Spina Bifida or certain birth defects born to women who served in the Republic of Vietnam or served in or near the demilitarization zone (DMZ) in Korea during certain time periods.
Clothing Allowance paid annually to veterans who use a prosthetic or orthopedic device (including a wheelchair) because of a service-connected disability, or have a service-connected skin condition and uses a medication that causes irreparable damage to outer garments.
Convalescence, which is a temporary 100% disability rating applied during recovery from surgery or during immobilization of a joint by a cast without surgery for a service-connected disability.
Hospitalization, which is a temporary 100% disability rating granted a veteran who is hospitalized for more than 21 days for a service-connected disability.
Individual Unemployability pays disability compensation at the 100% rate to certain veterans who are unable to maintain substantially gainful employment as a result of service-connected disabilities, even though VA has not rated their service-connected disabilities at the total level.
Prestabilization, a 12-month 50% or 100% disability rating granted a veteran who recently separated from service and who has an unstable disability and is in need and cannot be self-sufficient.

If you recognize a VA disabled veterans benefit here you may qualify for but are not receiving, contact Disable Vets today. We can help make sure your initial benefits claim seeks all benefits you deserve, help you appeal or reopen and existing claim, or file a new claim.

Do not forego monetary benefits promised to you for your service to our country. Disabled Vets wants you to have ALL BENEFITS you deserve, and will fight for you. You are not in this alone.

Let Us Help You Get a Full VA Disability Compensation Benefits

The VA provides a wide variety of benefits and compensation to disabled service veterans. However, due to government bureaucracy, a backlog of cases and other factors, VA workers cannot identify and alert every vet to each benefit they are owed. But our advocacy group helps disabled veterans get the full VA benefit they deserve.

The Disabled Vets advocates have the knowledge, experience and dedication required to determine what each disabled veteran we work with deserves, and then to go after it for them. We have helped thousands of disabled individuals like you. Our objective is to get ALL of the benefits you deserve into your hands as FAST as possible.

When you deserve more,you shouldhave it. And we want you to have it ASAP.

Don’t go it alone. We will fight for you. Call Disabled Vets today!