Christian McTarnaghan: Hi everyone. My name is Christian McTarnaghan. I am an attorney at Chisholm
Chisholm and Kilpatrick. And today we are going to be discussing COLA and disability
pay rates for 2021. All right, so you might be asking, what is Cola? So that is an acronym
for the cost of living adjustment. The yearly change in the cost of living as determined
by the Social Security Administration or commonly referred to as the SSA.
Christian: In 2021 Americans who rely on Social Security benefits, VA disability benefits,
military retirement pay, and other government benefits will see a 1.3 percent
increase in their monthly compensation. How does the government determine what the cost
of living adjustment would be? The Social Security bases the COLA rates on the percentage
increase of the Consumer Price Index for urban wage earnings and clerical workers, otherwise
known as the CPI-W. It determines that from the third quarter. So from July, August, and
September of the previous fiscal year and they compare it to the third quarter of the
current fiscal year. And so that is where we see the one point three percent increase.
It is going to go into effect on December 1st of 2020.
Christian: How are these pay rates determined? We are going to go through what the pay rates
are based on the percentage of disability in detail, every single one, a little bit
later in this talk. But the pay rate is determined by your combined disability rating. So VA
uses the COLA rate to adjust these monthly disability compensation amounts each year.
Just a reminder, you are not going to receive separate compensation for each of your service-connected
disabilities. You have a thirty for your right knee, a thirty for your left knee, you are
not going to get two thirties. You get one monthly payment based on all of your disabilities
combined into one disability rating. So it is important to note that you can get additional
monthly compensation if you're a veteran, if you have qualifying dependents, if you
have a combined disability rating of at least thirty percent. Qualifying dependents include
minor children under the age of eighteen, children between the ages of eighteen and
twenty-three who are still in school, your spouse, and dependent parents if you have
them.
Christian: What are these disability rates for 2021 that we are talking about? So as you
can see from the chart on the screen the increase in compensation is going to vary depending
on your rating and your number of qualifying dependents. Since it is a percentage, each
of the levels of compensation is going to change by a different amount. In 2021 if you
have a ten percent rating, you are going to get a hundred and forty-four dollars and fourteen
cents a month. That is an increase of a dollar and eighty-five cents. Just to show you sort
of an example of how the COLA affects the rate. So a twenty percent rating, you are
going to get two hundred and eighty-four dollars and ninety-three cents a month. If your combined
rating is thirty percent, you are going to get four hundred and forty-one and thirty-five
cents a month. For the forty percent rating, you are going to get six hundred and thirty-five
dollars and seventy-seven cents. Fifty percent rating is nine hundred and five dollars and
four cents. The sixty percent rating is one thousand one hundred and forty-six dollars
and thirty-nine cents. So that is going to be a change of about fourteen dollars from
the previous year's rate. The seventy percent rating is one thousand four hundred and forty-four
dollars and seventy-one cents. The eighty percent rating is sixteen hundred seventy-nine
dollars and thirty-five cents. The ninety percent rating is eighteen hundred and eighty-seven
dollars and eighteen cents. And then finally the one hundred percent rating is going to
be in three thousand one hundred and forty-six dollars and forty-two cents in 2021.
Christian: We have a lot more information on this topic. And if you want to learn more, please
visit our blog it is cck-law.com. We are going to have a link to the rates in the comments
section. And please do not forget to follow us on social media to stay in the know on
the latest veterans topics.