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, 1989 and Special Monthly Compensation from December 1, 1989 — both current through the present. Earlier periods are flagged rather than estimated.
Estimate retroactive Dependency & Indemnity Compensation for a surviving spouse. Tell us when DIC should have started and the survivor’s circumstances — the calculator applies the correct DIC rate table month by month, including the pre-1993 pay-grade rates.
DIC rates loaded: surviving-spouse rates (deaths on/after and before Jan 1, 1993) from December 1, 1989 through the present. Earlier periods are flagged rather than estimated while the historical DIC tables are loaded.
Surviving spouses — check your start date. If you applied for Social Security benefits within one year of the Veteran’s death, VA should generally pay DIC back to the first of the month of the Veteran’s death. If that applies to you, enter the Veteran’s date of death as the date DIC should have started.
Leave this blank if the VA has never paid DIC — you’ll see the full amount owed. If the VA granted DIC but used a later effective date than it should have, enter the month the VA began paying. The estimate then shows the back pay for the months before that date.
Period detail
Month-by-month
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, agent/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.