VA Special Monthly Compensation (SMC) calculator.

Special Monthly Compensation is tax-free VA compensation paid at set monthly rates for specific service-connected losses and needs, under 38 USC 1114(k) through (t) and 38 CFR 3.350. It covers losses such as the use of a hand or a foot, blindness and deafness, and needs such as being housebound or requiring another person's regular help with daily living. The SMC level sets the amount, not your combined rating.

Yes. SMC-K is paid in addition to the basic rate, one award for each qualifying loss listed in 38 CFR 3.350(a): the anatomical loss or loss of use of a hand, a foot, both buttocks or a creative organ, blindness of one eye having only light perception, deafness of both ears with absence of air and bone conduction, complete organic aphonia, or the breast tissue loss or radiation treatment that paragraph describes. The law limits SMC-K by dollars, not by a number of awards: paid with the basic rate or SMC-S, the combined rate cannot exceed the SMC-L rate, and paid with SMC-L through SMC-N 1/2 the total cannot exceed the SMC-O rate (38 USC 1114(k), 38 CFR 3.350(a)). VA's published SMC rate page says you may receive 1 to 3 SMC-K awards, and this calculator counts up to three.

No. Only SMC-S requires a single service-connected disability rated as total (38 USC 1114(s)). SMC-K can be paid at any rating, including 0%, when its criteria are met. SMC-L through SMC-O, SMC-R and SMC-T turn on specific losses and care needs, not on the combined percentage.

Under 38 CFR 3.350(i), SMC-S starts with one service-connected disability rated as total. A schedular 100% rating meets that, and TDIU based on a single disability can meet it too. Then one of two things must also be true: you have separate, additional disabilities independently ratable at 60% or more that involve different anatomical segments or bodily systems, or you are permanently housebound because of your service-connected disabilities. A combined rating that reaches 100% from several smaller ratings does not meet the first requirement by itself.

SMC-S housebound is about confinement: your service-connected disabilities substantially confine you to your home and its immediate premises, and that is reasonably certain to continue for life. Aid and attendance, one basis for SMC-L, is about care: because of a service-connected disability, you need another person's regular help with daily tasks such as bathing, dressing or eating (38 USC 1114(l), 38 CFR 3.352(a)). A need for help that comes from a condition that is not service connected does not count for SMC. Aid and attendance is paid at a higher monthly rate than housebound. Both names are also used for needs-based additions to VA Pension, which is a different program.

Yes, at every level above SMC-K. VA publishes each of those levels with a separate rate for each dependent status, so a veteran with a spouse is paid from the spouse row, not the veteran-alone row. SMC-K is a flat amount with no dependent rows. On the basic rate, dependents count only from a 30% combined rating. This calculator prices a spouse and up to five children under 18. Dependent parents and children over 18 in school change the rate too, and are not included here.

VA is expected to consider SMC as part of a compensation claim when the evidence shows you may qualify, even if you did not ask for it (38 CFR 3.155(d)(2)). That does not always happen, so check your decision letter and raise SMC with VA if it appears to have been missed.

You list your service-connected conditions with their ratings, add what each one causes, switch on any daily care needs and choose the condition that causes each one. A care need is counted only once a service-connected condition is named as its cause. If VA pays you at the 100% rate through TDIU, mark that on the condition and the basic rate is priced at the 100% rate. The calculator applies 38 USC 1114 and 38 CFR 3.350 to those facts, shows the SMC level they point to with the regulation behind each step, and prices it with VA's published rates for your household. It runs in your browser with no account. It is an estimate from what you enter: VA decides SMC from medical evidence.