Between a 90% rating and a 100% rating, VA’s 2026 schedule jumps by $1,576.28 a month. At 90% a veteran alone is listed at $2,362.30, and one with a spouse at $2,559.30. The size of that leap, and the add-ons that sit around it, make this row of the table look different from the ones below it.
The cliff between the 90% row and the 100% row
In VA’s 2026 compensation table, a veteran rated 90% is paid $2,362.30 alone, $2,559.30 with a spouse and $2,704.30 with a spouse and one child. The 100% row starts at $3,938.58 for a veteran alone, so the difference is $1,576.28 a month, or $18,915.36 over a year. That is roughly six times the $260.15 that separates 80% from 90%.
Over a calendar year, $2,362.30 a month comes to $28,347.60, and $2,559.30 with a spouse comes to $30,711.60. Those are the annual totals of the two amounts in the title, before any other addition.
The rating scale rises in even 10-point steps, but the dollars do not follow. Anyone reading the table as a smooth ramp will misjudge what a final ten points of rating are worth, or what it means to stay at 90%.
A spouse at $197, a first child at $145
Dependents at 90% are priced in the same pattern as elsewhere in the table, only at a higher level. A spouse raises the base by $197.00 ($2,559.30 minus $2,362.30). A first child, once a spouse is on the award, raises it by another $145.00 ($2,704.30 minus $2,559.30). Each additional child under 18 adds $98.00.
A family of a veteran, a spouse and three children would therefore be listed at $2,900.30: the $2,704.30 spouse-and-one-child rate plus two additional-child amounts of $98.00. All of these amounts assume the dependents are on record with VA, which is a separate process from the rating.
Aid and Attendance as an added amount
The 90% row also carries a line beyond the household counts: an added amount of $181.00 for a spouse who receives Aid and Attendance. VA’s page on special monthly compensation defines the wider category as a higher rate paid to veterans, spouses, surviving spouses and parents with certain needs or disabilities, and describes Aid and Attendance as needing daily help with basic needs such as eating, dressing and bathing.
Special monthly compensation is layered on top of the basic schedule rather than replacing it. The page instructs readers to add its amounts to the figures in the basic rates table. It carries its own list of amounts, separate from the row read here, so a household with a spouse who needs that help has to consult both pages rather than rely on one number.
The two VA pages do not print the same figure for that spouse. The special monthly compensation page lists a single added amount of $201.41 for a spouse receiving Aid and Attendance across its levels, while the 90% row of the basic table lists $181.00. The difference reflects which schedule is being applied to the award, and it is the kind of detail that an award letter, rather than a headline, settles.
Allowances that sit outside the monthly table
VA’s list of special claims for disability compensation shows how many adjustments exist beyond the rating row. It names an automobile allowance and adaptive equipment when a service-connected disability prevents driving, a clothing allowance for garments damaged by prosthetics, orthopedic devices or skin-condition medications, temporary payments during recovery from surgery, and an increase for time spent in a VA hospital.
The same list includes individual unemployability. For a veteran rated 90%, that entry is relevant because it is a path to the 100% rate for someone who cannot work, discussed on its own VA page. None of these claims is folded into the $2,362.30 figure in the title, and none is guaranteed by it. Each has its own application.
What the 2026 figures cover
The table took effect on December 1, 2025, and its last-updated date is December 2, 2025. As read on September 30, 2026, the page shows no 2027 rates and no notice of a December 2026 change, so $2,362.30 alone and $2,559.30 with a spouse remain the current amounts. They are gross monthly figures for a rating and a household, not averages of what veterans at that rating receive.
The practical reading for a household is narrow and concrete. The rating fixes the base row, the dependents on record fix the step above it, and any special monthly amount or allowance is a further, separately approved layer. Someone comparing an award letter with the table should be able to account for each layer in turn, and any amount that fits none of them is worth asking VA about by phone.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is the source of every dollar amount above, and its table, not any secondary summary, is the record to check against an award letter.
Aid and Attendance under compensation and under pension
The spouse Aid and Attendance amount in this article is an add-on to a disability compensation award. VA pension is a different program, with an Aid & Attendance level of its own for wartime veterans and surviving spouses with limited income.
The Veterans Benefits Action Kit lays out the three VA pension levels including Aid & Attendance alongside a claim tracker, and it contains no compensation rate tables.
Open The Veterans Benefits Action Kit to compare the pension levels →
This piece was written with AI assistance; the figures were rechecked against VA’s live pages on the publication date.
