VA Disability Backpay Calculator

Tell us when the VA should have started paying you more, what it should have been paying, and what it actually paid. If your rating, SMC level, or dependents changed along the way, use Record a change to add each new period — the calculator applies the correct rate table month by month.

Rates loaded: disability compensation (0–100%) from December 1, 2008 and Special Monthly Compensation from December 1, 2008 — both current through the present. Earlier periods are flagged rather than estimated.

VA pays from the first of the month after the effective date (38 C.F.R. § 3.31), so the default is usually right.

Think the VA shorted you?

Effective dates are where the real money is — and where the VA gets it wrong most often. Veteran’s benefits are all we do.

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Disclaimer. This calculator is an estimating tool only. It does not account for withholding for separation or severance pay, military retired pay waivers, VA overpayment recoupment, apportionments, incarceration reductions, attorney-fee withholding, drill-pay offsets, or hospitalization ratings under 38 C.F.R. § 4.29/4.30. Results are not legal advice and do not create an agent-client relationship. Rate tables are drawn from the published VA compensation and SMC rate schedules and cover December 1, 2008 to the present for disability compensation, and December 1, 2008 to the present for Special Monthly Compensation; months outside those ranges are flagged, not estimated. Verify any figure against your own VA award letter. © United Veteran’s Disability, LLC.