Total Disability Individual Unemployability (TDIU) provides compensation at the 100 percent rate when your service-connected disabilities prevent you from maintaining substantially gainful employment, even if your combined rating is less than 100 percent. There are two pathways to TDIU. The schedular pathway requires that you have one service-connected disability rated at 60 percent or more, or multiple service-connected disabilities with a combined rating of 70 percent or more with at least one condition rated at 40 percent or more. Disabilities arising from a common etiology or affecting a single body system can be treated as one disability for meeting these thresholds. The extraschedular pathway exists for veterans who do not meet the percentage requirements but whose service-connected disabilities still prevent employment. These cases are referred to the VA Director of Compensation Service for consideration. For either pathway, the key question is whether your service-connected disabilities, considered together, prevent you from obtaining and maintaining substantially gainful employment. This does not mean any employment at all. It means employment that provides more than marginal income and is consistent with your education, training, and work history. VA must consider the combined effects of all service-connected disabilities, not evaluate each one in isolation.
Note: This article references sections of the VA's M21-1 Adjudication Procedures Manual. The VA periodically reorganizes the M21-1 and section numbers may have changed since this article was written. For the most current section references, visit the VA's public M21-1 Web Automated Reference Material System (WARMS).