VA TDIU: 100% Pay When You Cannot Work
Total Disability based on Individual Unemployability lets veterans below 100% schedular receive 100% compensation if service-connected disabilities prevent substantially gainful employment.
By The VivMetric Editorial Team · independent editorial research project
The basic rule
TDIU pays at the 100% rate when a veteran is unable to secure or follow substantially gainful employment due to service-connected disabilities. The common path is a single 60% rating, or 70% combined with one condition at 40%+.
How it differs from schedular 100%
Schedular 100% is earned by the rating math; TDIU is earned by unemployability. Both pay the 100% rate, but TDIU is tied to work limitation and can be reviewed if you return to substantial employment.
A rating for a different question
Individual unemployability addresses whether a veteran can maintain substantially gainful employment, which is a separate question from the percentage assigned to each disability. A veteran can therefore qualify for the benefit without meeting a scheduler threshold, and the effect on total compensation can exceed what the scheduler percentage alone would produce. Because the criteria are about employability, the evidence that matters is occupational rather than purely medical.
Source
38 CFR 4.16 (TDIU). Data retrieved 2026-08-19.