38 CFR Part 4
The VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities
The rating schedule — the master rulebook that assigns a percentage to every service-connected condition.
Read the official text of 38 CFR Part 4In plain English
Part 4 is the book the VA uses to turn a medical condition into a percentage. Every ratable body system has its own set of diagnostic codes, and each code lists the symptoms or test results that earn 0%, 10%, 30%, 50%, 70%, or 100%.
The percentage is not a measure of how sick you are. It is meant to represent the average loss of earning capacity a civilian would suffer from that level of impairment. That is why two veterans with the same diagnosis can carry very different ratings — what the schedule cares about is the severity of the specific findings listed in the code.
Part 4 also contains the general rules that sit on top of the individual codes: how to combine multiple ratings, when to apply the bilateral factor, when reasonable doubt goes to the veteran, and when a total rating can be assigned even though the schedule alone would not reach 100%.
What the rule actually requires
- Each condition is rated under a diagnostic code with specific criteria — the VA is supposed to assign the percentage that matches your actual findings, not the one nearest to it.
- When there is a question about which of two ratings applies, the higher rating is assigned if the disability picture more nearly approximates that level (38 CFR §4.7).
- Reasonable doubt about the degree of disability is resolved in the veteran’s favor (38 CFR §4.3).
- Ratings must consider the whole recorded history of the condition, not only the day of the exam (38 CFR §4.1).
Why this matters to your claim
Most under-ratings we see are not disputes about whether the condition is service-connected — they are the VA reading the diagnostic code narrowly, or relying on a single thin C&P exam that never captured the findings the code actually requires. Knowing the criteria in Part 4 is how you show the rating should have been higher.
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 Part 4
