DVA Household Services

What are DVA Household Services?

DVA Household Services, sometimes called HHS or DVA home help, pay for routine household tasks you can no longer manage because of an accepted service-related injury or condition. DVA can pay for them while you recover from surgery, or on an ongoing basis if you have complex health issues.

Services can include cleaning, laundry, ironing, lawn mowing, gardening, shopping and meal preparation. DVA decides which tasks, how often and the weekly limit, and records them in your determination.

A Gold or White Card doesn't by itself mean DVA will pay for help at home. The help has to be approved in that written determination. Being assessed, or having sent in a claim, isn't the same as being approved.

Household services with AusVeterans

AusVeterans is a DVA Household Services provider for cleaning and garden care: domestic cleaning, lawn mowing and gardening, window cleaning and gutter cleaning. We invoice DVA directly through the Provider Upload Page, so you don't pay. To book, you'll need your DVA file number, claim reference, TRN and current approval letter.

DVA cleaning services

When your approval covers cleaning or laundry, we clean kitchens, bathrooms and floors, dust and vacuum, and do washing and ironing where it's approved. DVA only covers housework you did yourself before your injury or illness.

DVA lawn mowing and gardening

When your approval covers garden work, we mow, edge, weed and keep paths clear. On a rural block, DVA only covers mowing of up to 2 hectares around the house.

DVA window cleaning

DVA's policy includes window cleaning as part of domestic cleaning. We clean inside and outside glass that can be reached safely.

DVA gutter cleaning

DVA's policy lists gutter cleaning as a household service. Roof height and access decide whether a job can be done safely.

What DVA won't pay for

Some jobs around the home aren't household services, even if you always did them yourself. DVA's policy treats these as home maintenance, or as work you'd normally hire a professional for:

• anything to do with trees, including removing, lopping and trimming them
• painting, and repairs to fences, doors and windows
• plumbing and electrical work
• pest control, landscaping and laying synthetic lawn
• taking away big rubbish, such as old furniture or whitegoods that won't fit in your bins
• washing, servicing or repairing a car
• washing or walking the dog
• packing and unpacking boxes when you move house

Grocery shopping is only funded if you can't use home delivery or click and collect.

Who can apply for DVA Household Services?

You may be eligible if you can't manage household tasks because of your accepted service-related injury or condition, and DVA assesses that you reasonably need help.

From 1 July 2026 all new Household Services claims are assessed under the MRCA, whenever you served and whichever Act your conditions were accepted under. Veterans with conditions accepted under the VEA can now claim. If you already receive Household Services under the DRCA, they continue until the renewal date in your determination letter, when DVA reviews them under the MRCA.

How to claim with form D9319

You claim with DVA form D9319, Claim for Household Services Compensation. Give a reasonable amount of detail about how your condition affects routine tasks, because DVA relies on that and your medical evidence to decide. Say which jobs you did yourself before your injury or illness, which you can still manage, and which you can't do safely now.

Send the completed form by email to [email protected], or by post to GPO Box 9998, Brisbane QLD 4001.

Download the D9319 form from DVA

If other people live with you

DVA has to consider who else lives in your home: how many people, their ages, whether they did housework before, and how much they could reasonably be expected to do now. That doesn't mean DVA refuses help whenever someone else lives with you. DVA's policy says the people you live with aren't expected to give up work, study, sport or community commitments to take on extra housework. When you claim, explain who lives with you and what they already do.

How the process works

1. DVA confirms you're eligible for an assessment.
2. An assessment works out which services you need.
3. DVA decides the level of support and sends your determination.
4. You choose a provider and arrange the services approved in your determination.

Tell DVA if your needs change, you're going into hospital or respite, or you're moving. DVA reviews your services regularly.

The assessment

The assessment is normally done by an occupational therapist (OT), a health professional who looks at how you manage daily tasks. Let DVA arrange it. DVA only pays for an assessment it has asked for, and it has no way to pay for a report you arrange privately, even if the report supports your claim.

DVA also checks whether you already get help at home from somewhere else, such as Veterans' Home Care, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), My Aged Care or your local council. The same help can't be paid for twice, so tell the OT about any help you already have.

Reading your determination

Your determination sets out what's approved, how much, and the start and end dates, and it includes your review rights. DVA's policy is that new approvals and renewals run for five years, although a shorter period can apply, for example for short-term help after surgery. Before any work starts, check four things:

• the task, for example cleaning or gardening
• the amount of help, as hours, visits or a limit
• how often, such as each fortnight or a total for the year
• the start and end dates

"Two hours per fortnight" means two service hours every two weeks, not two visits. "28 hours per year" is 28 hours in total, which is 14 two-hour visits, not a visit every fortnight all year. Keep separate limits separate: unused gardening hours can't move to cleaning, and missed visits can't be saved up, unless your approval says so.

DVA can't pay for work done without a current determination, so keep an eye on your end date. DVA should contact you before it ends to talk about renewing.

Read about DVA Household Services rates for 2026

Read DVA's Household Services information

DVA Household Services in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide

AusVeterans provides household services across Australia, including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and the Gold Coast. Include your suburb when you book.

If your needs change or a claim is declined

Tell DVA when your circumstances or support needs change so it can consider whether the services should be reassessed. If you disagree with a decision, follow the review instructions and deadline in your decision letter.

Other support at home

Veterans' Home Care is a separate program for Gold and White Card holders, with its own assessment and co-payments. If DVA approves Household Services for you, you can't also get VHC domestic help or garden maintenance. Compare Veterans' Home Care and Household Services.

Read about Veterans' Home Care.

Rules that are easy to miss

Household Services only pay for jobs you did yourself before your accepted condition and can no longer manage because of it. If you already paid a gardener or cleaner before the injury, DVA won't take over that cost, even if you now can't do the work. The same applies if your partner always did the cleaning or washing. DVA also won't fund a task because of ageing or because paying for help has become harder to afford. On the claim form, say which jobs you used to do yourself and how your condition stops you now.

You can get Household Services whether you own or rent. If your lease makes you responsible for the lawns or garden, show it to the assessor, because DVA accepts the tenancy agreement or the agent's confirmation as evidence. The job still has to be one you did before your injury. For example, cleaning the pool at a new rental won't be approved if you didn't have a pool before.

While you're in hospital, in respite care or away on holiday, your regular visits are put on hold and DVA won't pay for visits while you're not living at home. If you've been away for a while, ask DVA to approve a lawn mow and a clean just before you come home. Its policy allows for this.

If you move into residential aged care or palliative care permanently, DVA stops Household Services 28 days after you enter care. That gives your partner or family time to make other arrangements. If you later return home, services can restart from the day you were discharged, though DVA may ask for a new assessment.

Household Services end when the veteran dies. DVA's policy says it has no legal power to continue them for a grace period, because the entitlement belongs to the veteran. If you're a surviving partner who needs help at home, ask about Veterans' Home Care or an Acute Support Package.

DVA's policy is to give you at least 28 days' notice before it reduces or stops your Household Services, so you can send more evidence or explain what has changed. If your approval is about to end and DVA hasn't contacted you about renewing, ask for an interim determination. It lets services keep being paid until the new decision is made.

If you move overseas, you can keep getting Household Services if you still need them because of your accepted condition. You pay the provider, and DVA reimburses your receipts in Australian dollars to an Australian account or an overseas one. If you first claim from overseas, DVA will want reports from your treating doctor and photos and details of your home and garden, because an Australian assessment usually isn't possible. Tell DVA before you move.

Household Services can pay for short-term childcare in a crisis, such as while your partner is in hospital, while you recover from surgery on an accepted condition, or when a new job starts before you can find a childcare place. Ongoing childcare is only covered in narrow cases. The carer must hold a current Working with Children or equivalent check. The provider must invoice DVA directly, because DVA can't reimburse childcare you've already paid for.

You don't have to start with the form. The law lets you claim Household Services or Attendant Care by telling DVA, for example in a phone call on 1800 VETERAN or at a needs assessment. The claim counts from that day. You can ask for it while your liability claim is still being decided. Ask DVA to record that you've made the claim and note the date. If you email a form, send it to the address DVA lists, such as [email protected], because documents sent to other addresses don't legally count as lodged.

Checked against DVA's website on 25 September 2026.