Collapse to view only § 1157. Combination of certain ratings
- § 1151. Benefits for persons disabled by treatment or vocational rehabilitation
- § 1152. Persons heretofore having a compensable status
- § 1153. Aggravation
- § 1154. Consideration to be accorded time, place, and circumstances of service
- § 1155. Authority for schedule for rating disabilities
- § 1156. Temporary disability ratings
- § 1157. Combination of certain ratings
- § 1158. Disappearance
- § 1159. Protection of service connection
- § 1160. Special consideration for certain cases of loss of paired organs or extremities
- § 1161. Payment of disability compensation in disability severance cases
- § 1162. Clothing allowance
- § 1163. Trial work periods and vocational rehabilitation for certain veterans with total disability ratings
- § 1164. Presumptions of service-connection for Coronavirus Disease 2019
- § 1165. Choice of sex of medical examiner for certain disabilities
- § 1166. Claims involving military sexual trauma
- § 1168. Medical nexus examinations for toxic exposure risk activities
- § 1167. Mental health consultations
The death and disability benefits of this chapter shall, notwithstanding the service requirements thereof, be granted to persons heretofore recognized by law as having a compensable status, including persons whose claims are based on war or peacetime service rendered before April 21, 1898.
A preexisting injury or disease will be considered to have been aggravated by active military, naval, air, or space service, where there is an increase in disability during such service, unless there is a specific finding that the increase in disability is due to the natural progress of the disease.
The Secretary shall adopt and apply a schedule of ratings of reductions in earning capacity from specific injuries or combination of injuries. The ratings shall be based, as far as practicable, upon the average impairments of earning capacity resulting from such injuries in civil occupations. The schedule shall be constructed so as to provide ten grades of disability and no more, upon which payments of compensation shall be based, namely, 10 percent, 20 percent, 30 percent, 40 percent, 50 percent, 60 percent, 70 percent, 80 percent, 90 percent, and total, 100 percent. The Secretary shall from time to time readjust this schedule of ratings in accordance with experience. However, in no event shall such a readjustment in the rating schedule cause a veteran’s disability rating in effect on the effective date of the readjustment to be reduced unless an improvement in the veteran’s disability is shown to have occurred.
The Secretary shall provide for the combination of ratings and pay compensation at the rates prescribed in subchapter II of this chapter to those veterans who served during a period of war and during any other time, who have suffered disability in line of duty in each period of service.
Where a veteran receiving compensation under this chapter disappears, the Secretary may pay the compensation otherwise payable to the veteran to such veteran’s spouse, children, and parents. Payments made to such spouse, child, or parent under the preceding sentence shall not exceed the amounts payable to each if the veteran had died from service-connected disability.
Service connection for any disability or death granted under this title which has been in force for ten or more years shall not be severed on or after January 1, 1962, except upon a showing that the original grant of service connection was based on fraud or it is clearly shown from military records that the person concerned did not have the requisite service or character of discharge. The mentioned period shall be computed from the date determined by the Secretary as the date on which the status commenced for rating purposes.
The deduction of disability severance pay from disability compensation, to the extent required by section 1212(d) of title 10, shall be made at a monthly rate not in excess of the rate of compensation to which the former member would be entitled based on the degree of such former member’s disability as determined on the initial Department rating.