DVA's Rehabilitation Appliances Program (RAP) provides aids, equipment and home and vehicle modifications at no cost to you. You need a Gold Card, or a White Card for the condition the item helps with, and a health professional must assess that you have a clinical need for it. Your GP or health professional prescribes the item and one of DVA's contracted suppliers delivers and installs it.
What you can get through RAP
Aids include:
- assistive listening devices and tinnitus devices
- speech and communication devices, and low vision devices
- cognition and memory devices
- swallowing and feeding products
- bathing, toileting, continence and personal hygiene products
- diabetes products
- assistance dogs, including psychiatric assistance, guide, hearing and mobility dogs
Equipment includes personal alarms, oxygen and positive airway pressure machines, chairs, beds, lifting devices, adaptive household appliances, walking frames, knee walkers, wheelchairs and electric scooters, orthoses and prostheses, rehabilitation machines and palliative care equipment.
Home modifications include non-slip surfaces, ramps, rails and step changes, ceiling hoists, stair, platform and vertical lifts, and bathroom changes. Vehicle modifications include hoists and rotating seats, devices to carry a manual wheelchair, and customised driving controls.
Who can get RAP aids and equipment
You may be eligible if a health professional assesses that you have a clinical need for the item and you hold:
- a Veteran Card – All Conditions (Gold Card)
- a Veteran Card – Specific Conditions (White Card), where the item is for a condition your card covers
Some items must relate to an accepted service-related condition even if you have a Gold Card. These include assistance dogs, vehicle modifications and vertical platform lifts. For White Card holders, DVA approves the item first to check it matches an accepted condition.
DVA decides each request on whether a health professional assessed your need, the item is safe and suitable, it's a cost-effective option, and it forms part of your treatment or rehabilitation.
How to get aids and equipment from DVA
- See your GP and say you may need aids, equipment or modifications.
- Your GP assesses your needs or refers you to a health professional who does, such as an occupational therapist or physiotherapist.
- They work out which item best meets your needs, prescribe it, and ask DVA for approval if the item needs it.
- They send the prescription to one of DVA's contracted suppliers, who delivers and installs it at no cost to you.
GPs, medical specialists, registered nurses and allied health professionals can prescribe RAP items, but each item has a list of who can prescribe it. Most allied health professionals need a referral from your GP, a specialist or a hospital discharge team first. In rural and remote areas without an allied health professional, your GP or specialist can prescribe.
Don't buy an item before it's assessed and prescribed. DVA may not reimburse you.
The RAP schedule
The RAP National Schedule of Equipment is DVA's list of the items available. For each item it gives the item number, which health professionals can prescribe it, whether it needs DVA's prior approval, whether it must come from a contracted supplier, and any limits on quantity, value or reordering. Health professionals also use the RAP National Guidelines, which set extra assessment rules for some items.
Prior approval is also needed when an item goes over the schedule's limits, when you want more items than usual, or when you live in an aged care home that would normally supply the item. If nothing on the schedule meets your needs, your health professional can ask DVA to consider another item. They need to explain your clinical need, any trial of the item, why schedule items won't work, and attach a quote.
Your GP or health professional can call the DVA Health Provider Line on 1800 550 457 or email [email protected].
See the RAP schedule on DVA's website
Assistance dogs
Approval for an assistance dog has two steps. Your treating health provider completes DVA's application form with supporting documents. If DVA gives conditional approval, it refers you to a contracted dog supplier, who assesses you and your home face to face. DVA's suppliers won't train a dog you already own.
Help with the power bill for medical equipment
If DVA supplied you with equipment such as an oxygen concentrator, home dialysis machine, positive airway pressure device, electric wheelchair or insulin pump, you may be able to claim the Essential Medical Equipment Payment. It's an annual payment of $203 for each eligible item. It isn't taxed or counted as income. Claim with form D9400.
Living in residential aged care
Aged care homes must provide the aids and equipment residents need, so DVA only adds items the home isn't funded to provide. These are on DVA's RAP In Residential Aged Care List. Ask your aged care home first. If it isn't responsible for the item, it can contact DVA and arrange an assessment. RAP doesn't pay for home modifications in an aged care home.
Repairs, replacements and moving house
If an item is lost, damaged or no longer needed, contact the supplier: their details are on the item, and they repair, replace or collect it at no cost. Contact DVA if you can't find the supplier or they can't help. Don't repair, modify, sell or give away an item yourself, because DVA may own it and repairs void the warranty.
Portable items can move with you, including into an aged care home if the home agrees. Tell the supplier your new address. Fixed items and modifications can't be removed and reinstalled, so ask your GP for a referral to an occupational therapist to assess your new home.
You can take portable items when you travel. Overseas, DVA only covers aids and equipment for an accepted service-related condition.
If DVA doesn't approve an item
DVA says a decision not to grant a RAP item is generally final, because it rests on your assessed clinical need and the item's suitability and cost. Contact DVA to understand why. If you have new or updated evidence, your health professional can make a new application. Without new evidence, the remaining option DVA lists is a review in the Federal Circuit Court or Federal Court. A free advocate can help you work out your options.
Read DVA's information on RAP decisions
Rules that are easy to miss
Before DVA installs rails, ramps, lifts or bathroom changes, the property owner has to agree in writing and promise not to ask DVA to put the property back the way it was later. If you rent, that means your landlord or agent. DVA also checks that you plan to stay in the home. Plan modifications for how your condition is likely to progress, because DVA only considers a second change to the same area, such as the same bathroom, if the new need couldn't have been foreseen.
If you move into a retirement village or a complex of self-care units, check it has the rails, ramps and non-slip surfaces you're likely to need. DVA can refuse to supply these if your health meant you should have expected to need them within about six months of moving in.
Once you have a DVA assistance dog, you can claim back the cost of keeping it, including vet bills, vaccinations, worming and flea treatment, food, pet insurance and grooming, up to $645 a quarter. Send form D9401 with paid, itemised receipts to [email protected]. If you face a large unexpected cost, such as a vet bill your insurance doesn't fully cover, ask DVA before you pay whether it will cover the amount over the limit. Travel to the vet isn't covered.
Common questions
Can I buy equipment myself and claim it back?
DVA may not reimburse you if you buy an item without a clinical assessment and prescription. Contracted items must come from DVA's contracted suppliers.
Can I get the same item through the NDIS or aged care as well?
No. If you ask DVA for an item, you can't make the same request through another government-funded program. DVA encourages people eligible for more than one program to come to DVA first.
Checked against DVA's website on 25 September 2026.