Claim Raven explanation
What this means
This rule allows a 10-percent rating in a limited situation involving two or more separate permanent service-connected disabilities, none compensable, that clearly interfere with normal employability.
The award cannot be combined with another rating. Having multiple zero-percent conditions alone is not enough; the rule also requires the specified effect on employability. It does not assign a separate compensable rating to each condition.
How this helps your claim
If all your service-connected conditions are rated zero percent, consider whether the records show how they interfere with normal employment. Specific limitations and examples are more useful than simply counting the conditions.
What to check in your records
Use your decision, examination reports, and relevant records to check the following points.
- Confirm that the conditions are separate, permanent, and service connected.
- Check whether another compensable rating is already in effect.
- Gather concrete records of how the zero-percent disabilities interfere with normal employability.
Describe the combined effect on ordinary employment
Several zero-percent evaluations do not automatically establish the employability effect required here. The useful evidence describes how the separate permanent service-connected disabilities, together, clearly interfere with normal employability under this particular rule.
Keep the actual evaluations and service-connection findings available, then identify documented work effects. A general statement that every condition is troublesome may not explain the specific interference. The award contemplated here is also different from assigning a compensable percentage to each individual diagnosis.
Can this award be added to an existing compensable rating?
The regulation says it cannot be combined with another rating. This limits its use and distinguishes it from ordinary combined-rating arithmetic. Check the complete evaluation history for the period involved rather than assuming that multiple zero-percent conditions create an additional payment in every case.
Official regulatory text
38 CFR § 3.324
eCFR snapshot: September 3, 2026. Layout and spacing are adapted for reading. The full section and its tables are included below.
§ 3.324 Multiple noncompensable service-connected disabilities.
Whenever a veteran is suffering from two or more separate permanent service-connected disabilities of such character as clearly to interfere with normal employability, even though none of the disabilities may be of compensable degree under the 1945 Schedule for Rating Disabilities the rating agency is authorized to apply a 10-percent rating, but not in combination with any other rating.
[40 FR 56435, Dec. 3, 1975]
Related references
- 38 CFR § 4.1: What a VA disability rating measures
- 38 CFR § 3.159: VA duty to assist: records and examinations
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