Average DVA payout for depression and anxiety

There is no average DVA payout for depression or anxiety, and DVA doesn't publish one or pay a set amount for any mental health condition. If it accepts your depression or anxiety as related to service, permanent impairment compensation depends on how much all your accepted conditions impair you (measured in impairment points), how they affect your lifestyle, and your type of service. Two veterans with the same diagnosis can receive very different amounts.

If you need support now, call Open Arms on 1800 011 046, 24 hours a day. In an emergency, call 000.

How DVA works out a mental health payment

From 1 July 2026, all new claims are assessed under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (MRCA), whenever you served. The amount is worked out in this order:

1. DVA accepts liability for the condition through an initial liability claim.
2. The condition has stabilised and is likely to continue indefinitely. If it hasn't stabilised, an interim payment may be possible.
3. A medical practitioner assesses how the condition affects you, and DVA rates it using Chapter 4 of the Guide to Determining Impairment and Compensation (GARP M 2026). Depression, anxiety and any other accepted psychiatric conditions get one rating between them, not one each.
4. That rating is combined with the ratings for any physical conditions into a total from 0 to 100 impairment points. You need at least 10 points to receive compensation.
5. You complete the Lifestyle Rating form (D2670), and DVA gives a lifestyle rating from 0 to 7 based on your relationships, mobility, recreational and community activities, and work and domestic activities.
6. GARP M turns the points and lifestyle rating into a compensation factor, with higher factors for warlike and non-warlike service than for peacetime service. The factor is multiplied by the maximum weekly rate, $447.39.
7. DVA takes earlier VEA or DRCA compensation into account.

Under Chapter 4, the assessor gives a rating for your own distress (such as anxiety, low mood, poor concentration and nightmares) and one for the distress others can see. They then rate six areas: day-to-day functioning, work, home life, social contact, leisure and current treatment. The two distress ratings and the three highest of the six are added together.

Read GARP M 2026 or DVA's permanent impairment information

Getting depression or anxiety accepted

DVA first checks presumptive liability. That means it accepts the condition as service-related without you proving the link, unless there's clear evidence something other than service caused it:

• anxiety disorder, if you had more than 28 days of full-time warlike service (not counting the first 28 days) and it began during that service or within 5 years after it
• adjustment disorder, on the same service test, if it began during that service or within 3 months after it
• depressive disorder, as a secondary condition, if alcohol use disorder is already an accepted condition when the depression begins
• anxiety, depressive and some other mental health disorders, if you experienced abuse in the ADF and received a redress or reparation payment for it, with onset during that service or within 6 months after it (2 years after it if you received a maximum payment)

You don't apply for presumptive liability separately. If it doesn't apply, DVA uses the Statements of Principles (SOPs). The current depressive disorder SOPs are No. 11 of 2024 (reasonable hypothesis, as amended) and No. 12 of 2024 (balance of probabilities). The anxiety disorder SOPs are No. 100 of 2023 and No. 101 of 2023. Factors in the depressive disorder reasonable hypothesis SOP include:

• experiencing a severe traumatic event, or a potentially morally injurious event, within the 5 years before the depression began
• the death of a family member or close friend within the 5 years before
• ongoing stressful life events within the year before, which the SOP notes can arise from service, from leaving it, or in the years of transition to civilian life
• persistent pain for at least 3 months, or severe and permanent tinnitus, when the depression began

Read the depressive disorder SOPs or the anxiety disorder SOPs

Making a DVA mental health claim

You need a diagnosis for each condition you claim. Since September 2025, DVA accepts a diagnosis of an anxiety or depressive disorder from a psychiatrist, or from a GP or clinical psychologist who is treating you. It must meet DSM-5 criteria and usually goes on DVA's Injury and Disease Details Sheet. In complex cases DVA may still ask for a psychiatrist's report. Lodge the claim in MyService; free advocates at ex-service organisations can help. Read how to make a DVA claim.

How much the payout can be

DVA publishes weekly rates by impairment points. These are totals for all your accepted conditions, not for depression or anxiety alone.

These are DVA's published MRCA rates from 1 July 2026, using the higher expected compensation factor for each level. Your lifestyle rating can move the amount up or down. See the full impairment points table.

As an illustration only: if your accepted conditions combined to 20 impairment points from peacetime service, and your lifestyle rating matched the expected level, the weekly amount would be the 20-point figure in the peacetime column. A different lifestyle rating, earlier compensation or a mix of service types would change it.

The payment is tax-free and paid fortnightly, and you may be able to convert some or all of it to a lump sum based on your age. The choice is final. If you're assessed at 50 or more points, DVA reimburses financial and legal advice up to $3,397.18. At 60 or more points you may be eligible for a Veteran Gold Card.

If you can't work while you wait

Veteran Payment is an interim payment while DVA assesses an MRCA mental health claim. You may be eligible if you can't work more than 8 hours a week, were under Age Pension age when you lodged the claim, and meet residency, income and assets tests. You lodge the liability claim first, then apply in MyService. It's taxable and stops 42 days after DVA decides the claim.

Once a condition is accepted, incapacity payments replace lost earnings. If you go back to work, DVA can restart them quickly when your mental health means you need to cut your hours.

Read about Veteran Payment

Treatment you can get without a claim

You don't need an accepted claim to get depression or anxiety treated. Through non-liability health care (NLHC), DVA fully funds treatment of any mental health condition for current and former full-time ADF members, including reservists with at least one day of continuous full-time service. Some other reservists qualify through disaster relief or border protection service, or a serious training accident.

You need a Veteran Card that covers mental health; Gold Card holders are already covered. Apply in MyService, call 1800 VETERAN (1800 838 372) or email [email protected]. NLHC covers GPs, psychiatrists, psychologists, hospital admissions, prescribed medication and Open Arms services.

Open Arms – Veterans & Families Counselling provides free, confidential counselling to anyone with at least one day of continuous full-time service and their immediate families. See DVA mental health treatment options.

Read about DVA non-liability mental health care

If DVA refuses your claim or you disagree with the amount

Your decision letter gives the reasons and the time limit. For MRCA decisions, you apply to the Veterans' Review Board within 12 months, and can then appeal to the Administrative Review Tribunal within 3 months of the Board's decision. NLHC treatment doesn't depend on your claim, so a refusal doesn't stop it. Read about DVA reviews and appeals.

If your condition gets worse later, you can claim additional compensation once your overall impairment has increased by at least 5 points.

Rules that are easy to miss

You don't have to finish treatment before any PI is paid. For a first PI claim that includes PTSD, depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, substance use disorder or alcohol use disorder, DVA's policy is to offer interim compensation while you're still in treatment, based on at least 10 impairment points for that condition if it currently rates 10 or more, combined with your other accepted conditions. If treatment works and your final rating is lower, what you were paid isn't treated as an overpayment and isn't taken back. Interim compensation can also be converted to a lump sum.

Common questions

Can I go by payout figures other veterans post online?

No. Someone else's amount reflects their own accepted conditions, lifestyle rating, service type, earlier compensation and age.

Is a mental health payout taxed or counted by Centrelink?

Permanent impairment compensation is tax-free and isn't counted as income by Centrelink, but it may be counted in an assets test. For the service pension, a lump sum is deemed to earn income. Call Centrelink on 1800 777 653 and ask for the Compensation Recovery Team, or see a financial adviser.

Checked against DVA's website on 25 September 2026.