DVA Pensions in 2026: What You Can Claim After the 1 July Changes

What Changed for DVA Pensions on 1 July 2026

The 1 July 2026 reform did not remove DVA pensions. It changed the pathway for new compensation and rehabilitation claims.

One Act for New Compensation Claims

Until July 2026, three different Acts could decide a compensation claim. Which one applied depended on when and where you served. That has now changed.

From 1 July 2026, all new compensation and rehabilitation claims are decided under an improved Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (MRCA). Two older Acts closed to new compensation claims on the same date. They are the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 (VEA) and the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act 1988 (DRCA).

Here is why that matters. Say you planned to claim Disability Compensation Payment or War Widow(er)'s Pension under the VEA. That door has closed, and a new claim over the same ground now goes through MRCA.

The Act also improved MRCA in several ways. There is a new Additional Disablement Amount for older veterans, and eligibility for household services and attendant care is wider. The Repatriation Commission can now name conditions that may be decided on a presumptive basis.

What Happens to Payments You Already Receive

If you already receive a VEA or DRCA payment, nothing stops. Those payments have been grandparented, continue as before and they are still indexed.

Claims lodged before 1 July 2026 also stay put. They remain valid and are decided under the Act you lodged them under.

Income Support Pensions You Can Still Claim

Not every DVA pension is compensation. Income support pensions sit in a separate part of the system. The VETS Act did not close them.

Service Pension

The Service Pension is a fortnightly income support payment. To qualify as a veteran, you must meet residency rules and have qualifying service. You also need to be at least 60, or permanently incapacitated for work.

Qualifying service generally means your service exposed you to danger from hostile forces. Service Pension Age is 60, which is seven years before the Social Security Age Pension age of 67. The gap reflects how service can shorten a working life.

Your income and assets shape what you get. You may meet the rules and still get no payment. That happens when your income or assets sit above the cut-off limits.

Service Pension Invalidity

This payment supports veterans with qualifying service who cannot work permanently. There is no minimum age. Your service does not need to have caused the incapacity.

DVA treats you as permanently incapacitated without further assessment in three cases:

• You are permanently blind in both eyes
• You get, or could get, a Disability Compensation Payment at the special rate
• You get, or could get, a Special Rate Disability Pension

If none of those applies, DVA assesses you. Your impairment must be rated at 40 or more impairment points under the Guide to the Assessment of Rates of Veterans' Pensions (GARP). It must be permanent, and it must stop you working more than eight hours a week.

Service Pension Partner and Income Support Supplement

If you are partnered, your partner may qualify for a Service Pension Partner, subject to their own age and eligibility conditions.

Income Support Supplement is a separate payment. It goes to war widows and widowers, and to wholly dependent partners. It is means tested on income and assets, and the War Widow(er)'s Pension counts as income when DVA sets the rate.

Veteran Payment

Veteran Payment is interim income support. It may be paid while DVA assesses your claim for a mental health condition under MRCA. It is aimed at veterans facing financial difficulty during that wait.

The eligibility rules for Veteran Payment are specific. You must meet all of the following:

• You have lodged a liability claim for a mental health condition that DVA has not yet decided. That claim can be under MRCA, or under DRCA if you lodged it before 1 July 2026
• You are unable to work more than eight hours a week, confirmed by a certificate from your treating doctor
• You are below Age Pension age on the day you made the claim
• You are an Australian resident who was in Australia when you lodged it
• Your income and assets sit below the test thresholds

You do not need a formal diagnosis in hand for DVA to treat you as eligible. If you are well enough, you may be asked to take part in rehabilitation while you wait.

Veteran Payment cannot run alongside a Service Pension, incapacity payments, the War Widow(er)'s Pension or the Disability Support Pension. It stops 42 days after DVA decides your mental health claim. It is also the one income support payment here that carries no Energy Supplement.

Current DVA Pension Rates

DVA reviews rates each March and September. The figures below took effect on 20 March 2026 and remain current until 19 September 2026.
Our guide to DVA pension indexation covers the three indexes DVA uses.

Income Support Payment Rates

Compensation Payment Rates

Where a payment has both an older and an MRCA form, the two are listed together so you can see they land on the same figure.

These are maximum rates. They include any Energy Supplement payable. The two MRCA figures are fortnightly, not weekly.

Income and Assets Limits From 1 July 2026

Income support pensions are means tested. Compensation payments are not. The income and assets tests do not apply to the Disability Compensation Payment, the War Widow(er)'s Pension or the equal MRCA payments.

Three payments share the same limits. They are Service Pension, Social Security Age Pension and Veteran Payment.

The income free area is $226.00 a fortnight if you are single and $396.00 combined for couples. Above that, each dollar of income cuts your pension by 50 cents a fortnight, or 25 cents each for couples.

Income Support Supplement is means tested too, but its limits are much higher. The income free area is $1,872.00 a fortnight for singles and $2,519.20 combined for couples.

The asset value limits work in much the same way. A single homeowner can hold $333,000 and a single non-homeowner $600,000. For couples, the combined limits are $499,000 and $766,000.

Above the limit, payment drops by 75 cents for every $250 of assets. Income Support Supplement again has its own higher limits.

Two things are worth knowing if you are still working:

1. Under the work bonus, the first $300 you earn from work each fortnight is left out of the income test, and whatever you do not use builds up in a work bonus bank to a ceiling of $11,800
2. If a rise in your income stops your payment, it is suspended for two years rather than cancelled, so restarting it does not mean a fresh application

Compensation Payments Under MRCA

Since 1 July 2026, this is where new compensation claims land. These payments work differently from income support, and the income and assets tests do not apply to them. Two of them are reduced by offsetting instead, which the sections below explain.

Permanent Impairment Compensation

MRCA pays compensation for permanent impairment from accepted service-related conditions. Impairment is measured in points, not percentages. One point closely reflects one per cent of impairment, though the two are not technically the same thing.

You usually need at least 10 impairment points to qualify. A lower threshold of 5 points applies to hearing loss, loss of a finger or toe and loss of taste or smell. If you later claim for a worsening, DVA looks for an increase of at least 5 points.

Our guide to MRCA permanent impairment compensation explains how the assessment works. The DVA impairment points table shows how points are shared across body systems.

You may be paid a lump sum or periodic payments. A lump sum can suit big one-off costs, such as home modifications, while periodic payments give steadier income over time.

Which one suits you depends on your circumstances. It is worth running the numbers first, and our DVA permanent impairment payout calculator lets you model the difference.

Special Rate Disability Pension

The Special Rate Disability Pension (SRDP) is a tax-free MRCA payment. It is an alternative to incapacity payments, not to permanent impairment compensation.

If DVA assesses you as eligible, you are offered a choice between starting SRDP and staying on incapacity payments.

The main eligibility tests are that you have separated from all ADF service, that your condition is assessed at 50 or more impairment points and likely to continue indefinitely, that you are below Age Pension age and that you cannot work more than 10 hours a week.

Two things are worth weighing carefully. SRDP is offset dollar for dollar by the weekly value of any permanent impairment compensation already paid, and by 60 cents in the dollar of any Commonwealth-funded superannuation. So the amount you receive may be less than your incapacity payments.

Once you choose SRDP, the choice cannot be changed later. DVA requires you to get advice from a qualified financial adviser first, and it reimburses that cost up to a set limit.

Our guide to SRDP covers the trade-offs in more detail.

Additional Disablement Amount

The Additional Disablement Amount (ADA) is new under the improved MRCA. It acts as a safety net for older veterans and it mirrors the rate of the Extreme Disablement Adjustment under the VEA.

To be eligible, you must be pension age or older and you need an impairment rating of at least 70 points and a lifestyle rating of at least 6 under GARP M.

You must not be receiving incapacity payments, SRDP or the EDA or Special Rate under the VEA. You cannot receive both ADA and SRDP.

Veterans granted the ADA also receive a Veteran Card - All Conditions. The same offsetting rules that apply to SRDP apply here too.

Support for Partners and Dependants

The MRCA Wholly Dependent Partner Payment supports the partner of a veteran whose death was service related. The improved MRCA kept the war widow and widower auto-grants and it also kept posthumous grants of permanent impairment compensation.

My page on the War Widow(er)'s Pension and health care entitlements sets out what may be available to your family.

How Veteran Cards Fit With Your Pension

A pension and a Veteran Card are separate things. One does not always follow the other and  DVA now uses three Veteran Card names.

1. Veteran Card - All Conditions, colloquially the Gold Card, gives access to treatment for all medical conditions. Under MRCA, it is reached at 60 or more impairment points, or through SRDP status. You cannot apply for it directly
2. Veteran Card - Specific Conditions, colloquially the White Card, covers accepted service-related conditions and may give access to mental health treatment
3. Veteran Card - Pharmaceuticals Only, colloquially the Orange Card, gives concessions on prescription medicines, wound care items and nutritional supplements, and is for Commonwealth and allied veterans of the Second World War

With qualifying service, you may be eligible for a Veteran Card - All Conditions once you turn 70.
Our guide to Gold Card pension rates and entitlements covers how the card sits alongside pension payments.

How to Claim a DVA Pension

The claim is the part most veterans find hardest. It is also where avoidable mistakes cost the most.

Applying Through MyService

MyService is the online route for most DVA pension claims. You will need a myGov account linked to DVA. If you lodge a joint claim, your partner may need extra identity documents when they have not used MyService before.

DVA must confirm your qualifying service before you can claim a Service Pension. If you cannot see the option in MyService, look for the option to apply for qualifying service first.

Paper forms are still available. Form D0503 covers Service Pension eligibility. Form D0648 covers income and assets.

You do not have to be ready to lodge. You can use MyService to ask DVA to confirm qualifying service, and you can register that you plan to claim. That lets DVA backdate the claim, as long as you lodge the completed claim within three months.

Contacting DVA

There are three official routes to DVA:

• Use MyService online
• Call 1800 VETERAN (1800 838 372)
• Visit a Veterans' Access Network office in person

Claims Time Frame

DVA claims are measured in months and years, not weeks. A permanent impairment claim commonly runs to somewhere around two to three years from the day you lodge it to the day a decision lands.

How long yours takes turns on how complicated your conditions are, how much medical evidence already exists and how heavily DVA is loaded at the time.

In our experience, delegate assignment alone can absorb up to four months and the assessment only begins once that has happened. The rest depends on the complexity of the claim, the team it is assigned to and how the individual delegate manages it.

Getting Help With Your Claim

How you prepare the claim shapes the outcome. Missed conditions, thin medical evidence and gaps in the forms are the usual reasons a claim comes back wrong.

Veterans First Consulting has supported over 10,000 veterans with their DVA claims. We are an independent, paid service provider and our work is focused on getting the claim right the first time.

Professional guidance does not guarantee a particular outcome, but it does reduce errors and helps you claim the entitlements you are eligible for in one comprehensive claim rather than several.

Our guide on how to make a DVA claim walks through the process step by step.

If you are struggling with your mental health, Open Arms can help. It offers free, confidential counselling to current and ex-serving ADF members and their families. Call 1800 011 046.

Where This Leaves You

The 1 July 2026 changes took nothing away, but they did change the door you walk through.

Service Pension and the other income support payments stay open to veterans who meet the qualifying service and means test rules, while new compensation claims now run through MRCA.

Book a free consultation with Veterans First Consulting to review your service history and work out which entitlements may apply to you.