Veterans Family Support Services Program: How Australian Families Access DVA Help

What the Veterans Family Support Services Program Covers

The "veterans' family support services program" isn't a single scheme. It's an umbrella term for a collection of DVA-funded supports that help partners, children and dependents of current and former ADF members. Some supports are tied to a veteran's accepted compensation claim. Others are open to families regardless of claim status.

The scale of support is significant. In 2023-24, the Department of Veterans' Affairs delivered $8.3 billion in support across:

• Compensation
• Healthcare
• Pensions
• Family payments

As of June 2024, 352,077 veterans and veteran family members had accessed DVA support of some kind.

The Main Programs Worth Knowing About

Most family supports fall into four broad categories:

• The Defence, Veterans' and Families' Acute Support Package for families in crisis
• Veterans' and Families' Hubs for local, integrated services
• Open Arms for free counselling and mental health support
• Pensions and dependant payments, including War Widow(er)'s Pension and Eligible Young Persons Payments

Each program has its own eligibility rules, and that's where many families get tripped up. A veteran's claim status often determines what the family can access, which is why getting the underlying DVA claim right matters so much.

A Practical Way to Sort Family Supports

Before families contact three different services, we usually separate supports into three buckets:

• Supports available without an accepted claim, such as Open Arms counselling
• Supports that depend on DVA payment or claim status, such as the Acute Support Package
• Supports that depend on death, impairment or dependant rules, such as partner and dependent payments

This is the part that reduces confusion. A family may be able to contact Open Arms today, while a separate claim-linked entitlement may need the veteran’s liability, incapacity, SRDP or impairment status checked first.

Before you read each program in detail, it helps to separate family supports by access pathway. Some supports can be contacted directly, while others depend on the veteran’s DVA payment status, accepted conditions, impairment points or family circumstances.

The Acute Support Package: Help When Families Hit a Crisis

The Defence, Veterans' and Families' Acute Support Package is the cornerstone of family-specific DVA help. It's designed to give working-age veteran families short-term, intensive support when life throws something serious at them.

The Package replaced the previous Family Support Package in 2022. The Defence, Veterans' and Families' Acute Support Package Act 2022, which received Royal Assent on 7 October 2022, extended eligibility to a wider range of veterans and their families and removed the old caps on individual service types. 

Who Qualifies for the Acute Support Package

Eligibility depends on the person applying. DVA considers:

• Age
• The veteran’s relevant DVA payment status
• The person’s relationship to the veteran
• Whether the family is experiencing or at risk of crisis because of new and challenging life circumstances

For veterans, current serving members, former partners and related persons, eligibility generally depends on the relevant veteran receiving, or being eligible to receive one of the following:

• Incapacity Payments under the DRCA or MRCA
• Special Rate Disability Pension (SRDP) under the MRCA
• Special or Intermediate rate of Disability Compensation Payment
• Veteran Payment under the VEA

For bereaved families, eligibility depends on the person applying. Bereaved partners and bereaved parents or step-parents are assessed under different rules, but the veteran’s death must generally be service-related and have occurred less than two years prior.

A family member may be assessed as a “related person” of the veteran, including:

• A partner
• A parent, step-parent or grandparent
• A child, stepchild or grandchild
• A sibling or half-sibling
• A person who stands in a parental role

Former partners are assessed under a separate category. DVA states that a related person does not need to live with the veteran to qualify, and may access the Acute Support Package without the veteran’s knowledge or involvement in some circumstances.

What the Package Actually Funds

The Package isn't a cash payment. In most cases, DVA pays service providers directly for agreed services in your support plan. The services are tailored to what your family actually needs, and they typically cover:

• Help around the home, such as cleaning, meal preparation and household maintenance
• Support for children, including childcare, tutoring, music lessons, sporting activities and wellbeing services
• Capacity-building supports like financial literacy, relationship skills and mental health first aid
• Counselling, both clinical and life-skills focused

The Package isn't designed for general financial hardship, ongoing medical or dental treatment that DVA already funds elsewhere or natural disasters covered by other government programs.

Funding Limits and Time Frames

DVA sets service access limits by applicant type and support period. According to DVA's Acute Support Package guidance, eligible veterans, former partners and related persons can access:

• Up to $7,500 in services in the first 12 months
• Up to $5,000 in services in the second 12 months
• Up to 48 months of total access from the day the support plan starts
• Up to four additional counselling courses every 12 months for a continuous 36-month period after the 24-month support period ends

Bereaved partners and bereaved parents or step-parents may access:

• Up to $27,835 in services during the first 12 months
• Up to $27,835 in services during the second 12 months

Children of veterans may also receive extra service funding of up to $10,000 every 12 months before primary school, or up to $5,000 every 12 months while attending primary school, but not yet high school.

For eligible veterans, former partners and related persons, you can pause your support plan and use services when you actually need them, which gives families real flexibility.

Veterans' and Families' Hubs: Your Local Front Door

Veterans' and Families' Hubs are physical locations across Australia where multiple support services come together under one roof. Instead of chasing different organisations across different addresses, families can walk into a Hub and get connected to wellbeing support, advocacy, employment help, housing advice and physical and mental health services in one place.

Where the Hubs Are

There are now 11 Hubs operational across Australia, with more sites under development. The current network includes Hubs in:

• Perth
• Adelaide
• Northern Adelaide
• Caboolture
• Nowra
• Queanbeyan
• Hunter Region / Maitland
• Wodonga
• Darwin
• Hobart / Launceston
• Burnie

New sites are also being established in Southwest Perth, Ipswich, the Hawkesbury Region, the Tweed/North Coast Region, and the Surf Coast/Geelong Region. In the 2025 Federal Election, the Australian Government committed a further $5 million to establish a new Hub in Bendigo, Victoria.

What You Can Get at a Hub

Each Hub operates with its own service model based on local needs, but most provide or connect families to:

• Wellbeing support and case management
• Advocacy services
• Employment and housing advice
• Social connection and community programs
• Physical health services
• Mental health services

Hubs work alongside ex-service organisations, community providers and state and territory governments, making them a useful starting point for families who don't know where to begin.

Free Mental Health Support Through Open Arms

Mental health support is one of the few DVA-funded supports that doesn't require an accepted compensation claim. Open Arms Veterans and Families Counselling provides free, confidential counselling 24 hours a day, seven days a week to anyone who has served at least one day of continuous full-time service in the ADF, their immediate family and eligible reservists who meet Open Arms criteria.

Open Arms offers:

• Individual counselling
• Couple counselling
• Family counselling
• Group treatment programs

Their Community and Peer Workers have lived experience of military service or military family life, so families aren't talking to someone reading from a textbook.

For broader mental health support tied to a service condition, families benefit when the veteran has lodged a successful claim. Our DVA mental health claims guide walks through the pathways, including Non-Liability Health Care, which can fund mental health treatment for eligible veterans without needing to prove the condition was caused by service, provided they have the relevant Veteran White Card mental health coverage or already hold a Gold Card.

Entitlements and Support for Veteran Families

Several family-related DVA entitlements may sit under the family support umbrella. Eligibility depends on the veteran’s claim status, accepted conditions, impairment assessment and the family’s circumstances.

Pensions and Dependant Payments

Where a veteran's death is service-related, surviving partners may be eligible for different payments depending on the legislation that applies. A War Widow(er)'s Pension sits under the VEA, while Wholly Dependent Partner Payment sits under the MRCA. The Income Support Supplement may also be available to eligible surviving partners, but it is means-tested and not automatic. Children and other dependents can also access payments. 

For veterans with accepted claims, DVA pensions and periodic payments may provide ongoing household financial stability.

Eligible Young Persons Payments

Veterans assessed at 80 or more impairment points and paid, or entitled to be paid, MRCA permanent impairment compensation may qualify for an additional payment for each dependent who is also an eligible young person. These Eligible Young Persons Payments recognise dependant family responsibilities and are linked to the veteran’s MRCA entitlement, rather than being a payment made directly “for” the child.

Why Your DVA Claim Status Shapes What Your Family Can Access

Here's the part most articles skip. One common reason veteran families miss out on claim-linked support services is that the veteran's claim hasn't been lodged, accepted or assessed at the right stage, while other supports may still be available without an accepted compensation claim.

Claim-Linked Support Starts With Status

Look at the Acute Support Package eligibility list again. To access it, the veteran needs to be receiving:

• Incapacity Payments
• SRDP
• Special or Intermediate rate Disability Compensation
• Veteran Payment

Each of those follows a different pathway. Some depend on accepted liability, impairment level or incapacity for work, while Veteran Payment can be paid while DVA assesses an eligible mental health claim.

Family Entitlements Follow the Same Chain 

The same chain runs through most family supports:

• Some partner and dependent entitlements depend on accepted liability, service-related death, SRDP eligibility or high impairment assessment, depending on the legislation and payment type.
• Some concessions and healthcare access pathways may depend on the veteran’s card type, but rules vary by state and entitlement.
• The additional Section 80 payment requires the veteran to be assessed at 80 or more impairment points and be paid, or entitled to be paid, MRCA PI compensation.

This is why our DVA initial liability claims service and permanent impairment claims work matters not just for veterans, but for the whole family. A complete, evidence-backed claim helps DVA assess the veteran’s full circumstances clearly, which may affect access to claim-linked family supports. A weak or incomplete claim can make that path harder.

The Bigger Picture: Where Family Support Is Heading

The family support landscape is shifting. In December 2024, the Australian Government released the Defence and Veteran Family Wellbeing Strategy 2025-2030, a five-year plan that recognises the role families play in supporting current and former ADF members.

The Strategy is built around three priorities:

• Informed Engagement: Families can find the information they need when they need it
• Supported and Secure: Families are supported to manage the impacts of service through flexible, fit-for-purpose policies
• Recognised and Understood: Continued effort to understand family needs through research, engagement and evaluation

The Strategy was informed by Defence and veteran family experiences and feedback, and complements the new Defence and Veteran Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2025-2030 launched in September 2025. For families, this means the next five years should bring better information, more responsive policies and clearer pathways into existing supports. 

How Veterans First Consulting Helps Families Access What's Available

We work specifically on DVA claims, and that's where we add value to families. We don't run counselling services, hubs or pension agencies, but we do the upstream claims work that may affect access to claim-linked supports.

We are one of Australia’s most experienced independent DVA claims teams, and we’ve supported over 9,000 veterans through the claims process. For families, this means we:

• Make sure the veteran's claim covers all eligible conditions in one comprehensive submission, so relevant entitlements are not missed
• Prepare the evidence so DVA can assess all eligible conditions and impairment points accurately, including where impairment assessments may affect related entitlements
• Help connect veterans with appropriate medical providers as part of an active claim
• Provide clear fee guidance before work begins, with no upfront professional fees, so families understand the process before they commit

If your family is dealing with the fallout of service-related conditions and you're not sure which DVA supports apply, the first step is making sure the veteran’s claim is complete, evidence-backed and properly prepared.

Support Starts With the Right Claim

While some family services are available directly, many DVA-funded supports depend on the veteran’s claim status, accepted conditions or impairment assessment. Getting the claim right can help support access to the entitlements your family may rely on. Contact Veterans First Consulting today for clear, independent guidance on your DVA claim.