If you’ve filed a VA disability claim, the “bilateral factor” might play an important role in how your total rating is calculated. Understanding the bilateral factor can help you make sense of how the VA adds up percentages for service-connected conditions, especially when both sides of your body are involved.
What Is the Bilateral Factor?
The bilateral factor applies when compensable service-connected disabilities affect both arms, both legs, or paired skeletal muscles. It is not a general rule for every paired organ or body part. VA combines the qualifying bilateral disabilities and adds 10% of that combined value before combining the result with other ratings, subject to the current exception in § 4.26(d) when applying the factor would produce a lower combined evaluation.
How Does It Work?
Here’s how the VA applies the bilateral factor:
- Identify the qualifying paired disabilities. They must be compensable disabilities affecting both upper extremities, both lower extremities, or paired skeletal muscles. Eyes and ears are not included merely because they are paired organs.
- Combine the ratings for those two conditions using the VA’s Combined Ratings Table, which doesn’t simply add percentages but uses a formula that reduces each subsequent percentage.
- Add 10% of that combined value as a “bonus” for the bilateral factor.
- Treat the bilateral result as one value and combine it with any remaining disability ratings using the Combined Ratings Table. Do not round that intermediate bilateral value to the nearest 10 before the remaining ratings are combined.
Example:
Let’s say you have:
- A 30% rating for your right knee, and
- A 20% rating for your left knee.
Since both knees are service-connected and part of a pair, the VA will first combine the 30% and 20%. Using the Combined Ratings Table:
- 30% + 20% = 44% (not 50%).
Then, the VA adds 10% of 44, which is 4.4%. This gives you:
- 44 + 4.4 = 48.4%.
The 48.4% bilateral value is carried forward as one rating and combined with any other service-connected ratings. If there are no other ratings, VA then converts the final combined value to the nearest degree divisible by 10, which would be 50% in this example.
If you have other service-connected disabilities, that 50% will be factored into the rest of the calculation for your overall combined rating.
Why the Bilateral Factor Matters
Even though the 10% “boost” might sound small, it can make a big difference in your overall VA rating, especially when you are close to thresholds like 50%, 70%, or 100%. Reaching these milestones can affect not only your monthly compensation but also your eligibility for other VA benefits, including healthcare, dependents’ benefits, and vocational rehabilitation.
Double Check the Math
The bilateral factor is almost always automatically applied. But just like everything else with VA claims, VA makes mistakes. When you get your decision, double check the math.
The VA’s rating system is complicated, but the bilateral factor is one of the few parts that actually helps increase your rating. If you have disabilities on both sides of your body, make sure the VA has applied this rule correctly in your case.
