38 CFR §4.16
Total Disability Based on Individual Unemployability (TDIU)
Pays at the full 100% rate when service-connected conditions keep you from holding substantially gainful work — even if your combined rating is lower.
Read the official text of 38 CFR §4.16In plain English
TDIU is the rule that lets the VA pay you at the 100% rate without giving you a 100% schedular rating. The question it asks is not how severe your conditions look on paper — it is whether your service-connected conditions stop you from holding substantially gainful employment.
There are two doors into TDIU. The schedular door has rating thresholds. The extraschedular door has none, but requires the case to be sent up to the Director of Compensation Service for a decision outside the normal rating rules.
Work that is marginal — income below the federal poverty threshold, or a job in a protected environment such as a family business that shields you from normal work demands — does not count as substantially gainful employment.
What the rule actually requires
- Schedular path, one condition: a single service-connected disability rated at 60% or more.
- Schedular path, multiple conditions: a combined rating of 70% or more with at least one condition rated 40% or more.
- Certain disabilities are treated as one condition for that math — for example, disabilities of a common etiology, or those affecting a single body system.
- Extraschedular path under §4.16(b): no rating floor, but the case must be referred to the Director of Compensation Service.
- Marginal employment is not substantially gainful employment.
Why this matters to your claim
TDIU is the single most commonly missed award we see. A veteran sitting at 70% who has not worked in years is often entitled to be paid at 100% — and the VA is required to consider TDIU whenever the evidence raises it, even if the veteran never filed a specific TDIU claim.
This is our plain-English summary, written for veterans — it is not the regulation itself and it is not legal advice. The controlling text is the current official version, linked above. The VA makes all final decisions about eligibility and payment.
Official text of 38 CFR §4.16