The military disability calculator is perplexing and many people have a hard time decifering its confusing directions. It isn’t as simple as adding two plus two. If a veteran has two disabilities, one being given a rating of 60%, the other rated at 20%, they do not equal 80%. When a veteran files a disability claim, including more than one disability, the Veteran’s Administration calculates them separately, so they are not added together to give the vet the highest possible rating. The VA has their own way of estimating what the vet’s benefits will be and how much financial compensation they will receive according to their disability or disabilities. Instead of calculating whole numbers, they calculate percentages by percentages. This makes it more difficult for a vet to reach 100% which would make them eligible for full benefits. Most veterans who were severely injured during their time in the service feel that the government is not giving them all the benefits they are entitled to.
Unemployability in the life of a veteran as a result of disabilities also contributes to the ratings calculated on the military disability calculator. In addition, the vet’s number of dependents is included in the equation. As a result, the benefits received by the disabled vet can vary greatly from what they should be. Because of this fact, and coupled with the lack of outside support, 1.4 million disabled veterans are forced to live in below average housing and are at risk to become homeless at some point in their lives. Half of veterans who are already homeless suffer from disabilities sustained while in the service, and of those, two thirds are substance abusers.
Many veterans disability claims include the fact that their service related disabilities have prevented them from being able to find a job and, if they can find one, they are often not able to keep it. Veterans disability ratings can be calculated for the time during which the vet is waiting for his or her benefits to be approved. These are referred to as staged ratings. If the disability worsens while the application is pending, the veteran can have the VA look into the medical records that indicate the change, and the calculation can be adjusted. The va disability calculator also makes concession for the veteran who has multiple disabilities that cause the same symptoms, one being service related and the other not service related. The VA then gives the vet the benefit of the doubt and considers the symptoms to be due to the service related injuries. This gives the veteran a higher rating which will increase the benefits when they are approved.
The military disability calculator, as stated earlier, is extremely confusing and difficult to understand. Traumatic brain injuries, for example, are rated by the impact that they are having on the veteran at the time the disability claim is being submitted to the VA. It is not rated according to the severity of the original injury. The VA will take certain components of a traumatic brain injury and rate them separately from each other. When using the military disability calculator, these ratings may add up to a lower total score than it should be.
