DVA Income Support Supplement: 2026 Rates, Limits and How to Claim

What ISS Is

DVA pays ISS each fortnight. It is paid alongside a compensation payment you already get, and it runs on separate rules.

A Second Payment Beside Your Pension

DVA's ISS page names two groups who can be paid it:

• People receiving the VEA pension for an eligible war widow or widower under the 1986 Act on veterans' entitlements
• Anyone who gets or once got MRCA compensation as a partner classed as wholly dependent under the 2004 military compensation law

From here on we call those payments the pension and the partner payment and call the second group MRCA partners.

DVA says other income does not change the pension, though other compensation for the same death can reduce it. ISS is the reverse, because DVA generally looks at what you earn and own before it pays. Our guide for war widows covers the pension itself.

One Department for Your Payments

ISS cannot be paid at the same time as DVA's means-tested pension for eligible veterans and partners. The same bar covers Services Australia's Age Pension, plus all remaining social security payments.

DVA says ISS was created so one department could pay you everything. DVA lists two exceptions that Services Australia can still pay where you meet its rules, Family Tax Benefit and help with child care costs.

What Comes With ISS

People on ISS are sent the Pensioner Concession Card without filling in another form. DVA's card page lists the federal benefits attached to it. State and territory concessions differ, and our DVA discounts guide covers the main ones.

ISS does not decide your health cover. You may hold a Gold Card because of the pension or the partner payment, whether or not ISS is paid. Our Gold Card guide explains the cover.

Who Can Get ISS in 2026

Eligibility begins with how DVA classes you. Your age, where you reside and any new relationship matter after that.

War Widow and Widower Status

DVA gives you war widow or widower status when your partner served in the ADF and died from an accepted condition. Accepted means the VEA treats the condition as caused by war service or by defence service, or the MRCA accepts it. DVA's ISS page lists further routes to that status.

Your late partner may, for example, have been held as a prisoner of war, been on the Special Rate of Disability Compensation Payment or reached at least 80 MRCA impairment points. Several other circumstances also count, and DVA's ISS page sets out every one.

Being the partner of someone who holds that status does not open ISS to you. You must hold it yourself, or be an MRCA partner yourself.

Partners Covered by the MRCA

The MRCA covers a member's surviving partner who qualifies. DVA's MRCA compensation page explains who qualifies and when DVA pays. The ongoing partner payment equals the pension rate, and all of it or a share can be taken as one lump sum.

Choosing the lump sum does not shut you out of ISS. DVA's rule covers people paid in the past along with people paid now. DVA then treats the weekly value of that lump sum as income in the ISS test.

What Changed in July 2026

The VEA closed to fresh compensation claims on 1 July 2026 and DVA now decides them using the MRCA. A pension granted earlier keeps being paid. DVA's pension page says DVA still grants the pension automatically in some cases, and lists them.

DVA's ISS page was updated in September 2026 and still covers both groups. For an MRCA claim, your route to ISS may be as an MRCA partner. With the pension already in payment, your route is through that pension.

Age and Residency

No minimum or maximum age applies to ISS. Age can still affect tax and parts of both means tests. Superannuation and the bonus for paid work, covered below, are two examples.

Only a resident of Australia who is in the country on the day of lodging can claim. DVA makes one exception for people overseas already on an Age Pension or DVA's means-tested pension for eligible veterans and partners. They also have to be people who would qualify for ISS when that payment stops.

New Relationships and Overseas Pensions

Remarrying or forming a de facto couple while on ISS does not end your eligibility. DVA moves you to the partnered rate, so what your new partner earns and owns can change the amount. DVA's page on relationship status has the detail.

A foreign government's pension for war widows or widowers does not qualify you by itself. DVA says ISS may still be open to you when the Australian pension is open to you as well.

ISS for Invalidity

This kind of ISS is for people DVA accepts as permanently unable to work. Permanent loss of sight in each eye is one way to qualify. The other is a disability, or several, that meets all three of these tests:

• A score of at least 20 points on social security's tables for rating impairment
• An inability to work 30 hours or more a week at award wages or above
• A disability that alone keeps you out of work for the coming 2 years

Those points belong to the social security system. MRCA impairment points are a different measure. A claim made this way needs your doctor's medical evidence.

How Much ISS Pays Under the September 2026 Rates

DVA sets a ceiling on ISS and adjusts it two times a year. Since 20 September 2026 the most ISS pays is $375.50 a fortnight, for single and partnered people alike.

The Most ISS Pays

DVA's September 2026 rates update confirms that ceiling. My DVA pension increase guide explains the indexation done every March, then every September.

Two groups may have a higher ceiling. One is people whose pension has been cut because of other compensation. The other is some people who were on social security as well as the pension before 1 November 1986.

The Smallest Payment

DVA's rate tables also set a floor. In the singles tables, any estimate above zero but under the floor is lifted to it. The couples tables work the same way with a lower floor.

No ISS is paid beyond the upper limits. Each table gives an estimate only, and DVA calculates the real figure.

Where the Two Supplements Fit

Two related supplements are handled differently. DVA folds the Pension Supplement into ISS, so it never shows as its own line. DVA attaches the Energy Supplement to the partner payment or the pension instead.

That second supplement needs no application, and DVA does not count it as income.

How the ISS Income Test Works

DVA tests your income, tests your assets and pays whichever result is smaller. Income comes first here, because the pension itself is counted.

Your Pension Goes Into the Test

For ISS, DVA adds the pension or the partner payment to everything else you earn. That explains why these limits are so much higher than the limits for DVA's means-tested pension for eligible veterans and partners. DVA's income test page sets out the method and the current limits.

Above the first limit, someone single loses 50 cents of ISS for each further dollar. In a couple, each partner loses 25 cents. Couples living apart through illness get separate limits, shown in DVA's rates summary.

Less Room Than It Looks

DVA's income test page works through an example for a single recipient. The pension goes in first without its Energy Supplement and other income is added after. Since the pension is counted, the limit leaves less room for other income than it first seems.

Other Income That Counts

DVA looks at gross income, wherever in the world it comes from. Typical examples are:

• Wages or salary, including amounts you salary sacrifice
• Income that DVA deems from financial assets
• Pensions paid from superannuation, plus other income streams
• Overseas annuities or pensions
• Rent or other returns on real estate
• Profit from a farm, a business, a private company or a private trust
• Another government's disability pension

What your partner earns is counted too. That takes in a pension or partner payment of their own.

Deeming and Compensation Recovery

DVA ignores the real return on your savings, shares and other financial assets. It deems 1.75 per cent on a first slice of those assets and 3.75 per cent on the rest, with a bigger first slice for couples. DVA's deeming page lists which assets are deemed.

A separate set of recovery rules may reduce or stop ISS for a while. They affect people under 60 who are compensated for lost earnings and DVA's compensation payment page explains them.

Paid Work and ISS

Paid work does not rule out ISS, though earnings change what you get. Through the Work Bonus, DVA disregards a set amount of eligible earnings every fortnight.

It has three conditions. You have to be over 60, the age DVA sets for ISS recipients to get the Work Bonus. DVA must assess you with the rules introduced on 20 September 2009, and the money must come from work, not investments.

Any unused part is banked up to a cap and can offset later earnings. No form is needed, but DVA must have your earnings recorded correctly.

Income that includes some employment earnings may take your ISS to nil. In that case DVA suspends it for a 2-year period and does not cancel it. Should your income come back under the limit within that time, ISS can restart without a full new claim.

If Your ISS Began Before Those Rules

Some people on ISS since before 20 September 2009 are still on transitional rules. Those rules take 40 cents of ISS per dollar past the limit, or 20 cents from each partner in a couple. The bonus is not available with them.

DVA calculates both versions and pays whichever is higher, as its transitional rules page explains. A move to the current rules is permanent.

How the ISS Assets Test Works

This test adds up what you own and takes off what you owe on those things. Your home is excluded, which is why homeowners have lower limits than non-homeowners.

Current Asset Limits

DVA's assets test page covers how it applies to ISS and lists the limits. They differ for singles and couples, and for homeowners and non-homeowners.

Your ISS falls 75 cents a fortnight for each $250 of assessable assets past the limit for your situation.

Couples have their joint assets and their limit split in half first. Each partner's reduction is then worked out from those halves.

What Counts and What Does Not

Counted assets include:

• Money in the bank, shares and managed investments
• Caravans, boats and cars
• Household goods, furniture and personal belongings
• Any real estate apart from your home
• Accumulation-phase superannuation, from qualifying age onwards

Your principal home is left out. So are some funeral bonds, funeral costs paid in advance and medals you were awarded.

If You Hold Too Much in Assets

Exceeding an assets limit does not always close the door. DVA points to three options that may help in different circumstances:

• Hardship rules, for cases where selling an asset would be unreasonable
• The Home Equity Access Scheme, a loan open to some people of qualifying age who can get ISS
• The Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, for some people 60 or older who are not on ISS

Every option carries tests of its own, and DVA recommends independent legal or financial advice before anyone takes that scheme's loan. We do not give financial advice ourselves. Services Australia also offers free general financial information.

Permanent Blindness

A permanently blind person is paid ISS in full and neither means test applies. A sighted partner's own payment is still means tested. DVA's blindness page describes the eye specialist's report it asks for.

How to Claim ISS

Some people are moved onto ISS by DVA, and the rest must claim. Your earlier payments decide which group you are in.

When No Claim Is Needed

No claim is needed in one situation. That is when DVA is already paying you an Age Pension or DVA's means-tested pension for eligible veterans and partners on the day it grants the pension or the MRCA's partner compensation.

DVA cancels the older payment and grants ISS, provided both means tests are met. It works from the details already on file. DVA then tells you which figures it used, so check them and report any error.

When a Claim Is Needed

DVA's ISS page lists three cases that need a claim:

• You were not receiving income support from DVA as the partner of an eligible veteran when your pension or the MRCA's partner compensation started
• You already have the pension and your Services Australia Age Pension is at its ceiling
• The pension or the MRCA's partner compensation is in payment and no other income support is paid to you

In the second case, DVA says moving to ISS leaves you better off. Its reason is that indexation lifts the ISS ceiling two times a year, while the matching Services Australia rate stays frozen.

Not sure which case fits you? Ask DVA.

Ways to Lodge

MyService takes ISS claims online. Phone 1800 VETERAN (1800 838 372) and DVA will note that you intend to claim, then send out a pack that suits you. For face-to-face help, visit a Veterans' Access Network office.

A paper claim uses two forms, lodged together:

• Form D0529 for eligibility, known as Part A
• Form D0648 for your finances, known as Part B

DVA may request copies of supporting papers, for example pay slips, tax returns, rate notices and investment certificates. DVA may also want proof of who you are.

The Three-Month Window

Aim to send back the filled-in forms and supporting documents within 3 months, counted from when the forms were originally requested. Doing so lets DVA begin ISS as early as the rules allow.

The 3 months are not a cut-off for claiming. If you miss the window, ISS may only begin on the day your forms arrive.

DVA adds that the start can reach back to the day your pension or partner payment was granted.

Support With the Forms

We do not lodge ISS claims, because we work on claims veterans make for themselves. DVA's ISS page sends you to DVA staff for the forms. It names two organisations whose officers can assist as well, Legacy and War Widows Guild of Australia.

After ISS Starts

A handful of rules apply once ISS is being paid. They deal with reporting changes, travel, tax and your right to a review.

Changes You Must Report

Report anything that could alter your ISS inside 14 days. The window is 28 days for people living overseas and for anyone paid the allowance for remote areas. DVA's list includes:

• New living arrangements
• Getting married, partnering or separating
• Assets or income rising past the limits shown in the latest letter DVA sent you
• A move or a trip overseas

Prompt reporting helps keep your ISS accurate. DVA recovers any overpayment.

A change can work for you too. Anyone paid below the ceiling can ask DVA to raise their ISS when things change.

Trips and Moves Overseas

Leaving Australia does not usually stop ISS, even when you leave permanently. Supplements are another matter. DVA's overseas travel page names both supplements covered earlier among those affected.

Let DVA know before you go, through MyService or by phone. Ask how your rate will be treated while you are gone.

A permanent move overseas means DVA cancels the concession card that comes with ISS. On a short trip the card stays valid for 6 weeks at most, although it does not work outside Australia.

Tax on ISS

The pension itself is tax exempt, according to DVA. ISS is taxable unless an exception applies, apart from its supplementary amount. DVA's tax page lists the exceptions.

ISS granted for invalidity is one exception when the person is younger than 67, the qualifying age for an Age Pension. Where ISS is taxable, DVA issues a summary of payments once the financial year ends. We do not give tax advice, so check your position with the ATO or a registered tax agent.

Challenging an ISS Decision

DVA can be asked to review a decision that refuses, cancels, suspends or changes your ISS. The review goes to a DVA officer who has not handled your case. Apply through MyService or by letter, explain your reasons and do so before 3 months have passed since the decision reached you.

Still unhappy after that review? The next step is the ART, the tribunal for federal administrative decisions, with another 3-month limit. DVA's income support reviews page walks through each stage and notes the Veterans' Review Board cannot review these decisions.

A decision against you can be hard to take, more so after a loss. Open Arms gives free counselling to veterans and to families at any hour on 1800 011 046.

Where Veterans First Consulting Fits

An ISS claim is between you and DVA. Our work is with veterans, on the claims they make for themselves.

We are an independent, paid advocacy service. We have supported over 10,000 veterans through the DVA claims process.

We help veterans prepare initial liability claims, permanent impairment claims and gather the evidence DVA looks for. Our guide to lodging a DVA claim walks through the steps.

Know the Ceiling, Then Check Your Own Numbers

ISS is an extra payment beside your pension or partner payment and two means tests set the amount.

DVA's rate tables offer an estimate and a claim may be possible in MyService if ISS has not been granted already.

Any veteran wanting support on a DVA claim of their own can contact Veterans First Consulting to talk it through.