VA disability and benefits, made clear
Understand your VA rating, get the benefits you earned, and know your next move.
Check your combined rating and what it pays, then go deeper: what each condition's rating really turns on, how to answer a lowball decision, and plain-language guides to appeals, the GI Bill, survivor benefits, and VA home loans. Every number traced to the source.
The VeteranPlug Desk / Updated weekly / Week of July 25, 2026 / 38 CFR Part 4 & VA rate tables
The signature tool
A combined-rating calculator that shows its work
VA ratings combine, they don't add. Ours runs the actual regulation, not a rule of thumb.
- Runs the real 38 CFR §4.25 combined-ratings table, parsed from the eCFR and verified cell by cell.
- Applies the §4.26 bilateral factor for paired limbs before it rounds.
- Prices the result with the current VA rate tables, effective December 1, 2025.
- Shows every step, so you can check the math against the regulation yourself.
Built on the same engine: the back pay calculator (each month priced at the rate table actually in effect), the TDIU eligibility calculator (with the §4.16 groupings other checkers skip), and the Path to 100 planner (what the combined math really requires).
Worked example: 50% + 30% + 20%
- Start with the highest
- 50
- + 30% of the remaining 50
- 65
- + 20% of the remaining 35
- 72
- Rounded to nearest 10
- 70%
Simple addition says 100%. The regulation says 70%.
The unfakeable moat
The VA claims backlog, updated every week
Straight from VBA's Monday Morning Workload Report, the week it publishes. This is the week of July 25, 2026.
| Benefit type | Pending | Backlog >125 days | Avg days pending |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compensation | 591,684 | 68,297 | 64.3 |
| Pension | 11,024 | 1,729 | 78.9 |
| BDD (pre-discharge) | 3,849 | 266 | 48.1 |
| All claims | 606,557 | 70,292 | 64.5 |
11.6% of all pending claims have sat longer than VA's 125-day backlog line. The tracker breaks every figure down by regional office and charts the trend week over week.
The rating schedule
Rating criteria, verbatim from the CFR
What the regulation actually says it takes to reach each rating level, quoted from 38 CFR Part 4 as currently in force, never paraphrased from a secondhand source.
Data study Tinnitus is the most-claimed service-connected condition by a wide margin, 3,583,295 veterans rated, from VA's own FY2025 Annual Benefits Report. See the full ranking of the conditions VA compensates most.
The most-claimed conditions, rankedThe guides
The VA disability system, explained by topic
Thirty-eight plain-language guides, each linked back to its primary source, grouped by where you are in the process.
Filing a claim
From the intent to file through the C&P exam.
Service connection & nexus
Proving the link between service and your condition today.
Presumptives & toxic exposure
When VA presumes the connection for you.
Ratings, TDIU & protection
How ratings combine, reach 100 percent, and lock in.
Money, appeals & policy
Back pay, taxes, appeals, and the data behind it all.
Survivors & special pay
Special compensation, survivor benefits, pension, and concurrent receipt.
Education & training
The GI Bill, transferring it, survivors, and VR&E.
Home loans & housing
Eligibility, the COE, entitlement and limits, refinancing, and adaptive-housing grants.
Health care, records & life
Enrollment and priority groups, your records, work, caregivers, and the hardest week.
Federal benefits travel with you; state benefits do not. Property tax exemptions, tuition programs, and the tax on retired pay all change at the state line: compare veteran benefits by state.
More from the desk
What a rating is worth, and the loan you earned
VA disability pay chart
$180.42 – $3,938.58
Every monthly compensation amount from 10% to 100%, single veteran through full dependents, effective December 1, 2025. Straight from VA's rate tables.
See the full pay chart →VA home loans
0% down
How the VA loan guaranty works: eligibility, the funding fee and who is exempt, and how a service-connected rating can waive it entirely.
The VA loan guide →Why trust these numbers
Independent. No fee. Built by a veteran.
VeteranPlug is a reference desk, not a claims shop. We take no case, we never charge you, and we never sell your name. The only thing we are selling is that the numbers are right.
Every number is sourced
Criteria from the eCFR, dollar amounts from VA's rate tables, backlog figures from the VBA workload report. Every page shows its source and retrieval date. Our methodology.
No fee, no lead sales
Filing a VA claim is free, and only accredited representatives may charge, only after a decision. We do neither. Why we're free.
Not affiliated with VA
VeteranPlug is independent and privately operated. For claim help, use a free VA-accredited representative or VSO.
By Mario Bailey, U.S. Air Force veteran · current Air National Guard member. About the desk →
VeteranPlug is an independent reference site and is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Nothing on this site is legal, medical, or financial advice.