A DVA payout usually means permanent impairment (PI) compensation: a tax-free payment for lasting impairment from a service-related injury or disease that DVA has accepted. It's paid weekly, and you may be able to convert some or all of it to a lump sum. The amount depends on your impairment points, a lifestyle rating and your type of service, up to a maximum of $447.39 a week. From 1 July 2026, all new claims are assessed under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (MRCA), whenever you served.
Types of DVA payment
People often say "DVA payout" for any of these, but they're separate payments with different rules:
| Payment | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Permanent impairment compensation | Lasting impairment and its effect on your life, weekly or as a lump sum |
| Incapacity payments | Lost earnings when an accepted condition stops you working or cuts your hours |
| Special Rate Disability Pension | An alternative to incapacity payments if you can't work more than 10 hours a week |
| Veteran Payment | An interim payment while DVA assesses an MRCA mental health claim, if you can't work more than 8 hours a week |
| Compensation for dependants | Payments to a partner and children when a veteran dies, in certain circumstances, and an extra lump sum for each dependent child of a veteran assessed at 80 or more impairment points |
Compare DVA pensions or see current payout figures.
How a PI claim works, step by step
- DVA accepts liability for your condition through an initial liability claim. It first checks presumptive liability, which covers 80 or more common service-related conditions plus some linked to specific exposures or to abuse. If that doesn't apply, it checks whether an injury happened while you were on duty, then assesses the claim against the Statements of Principles. Read how DVA accepts conditions.
- DVA normally considers PI compensation in the needs assessment after it accepts liability.
- Your condition must have stabilised and be likely to continue indefinitely. If it hasn't stabilised, DVA can make an interim payment and reassess later.
- A medical practitioner assesses how your accepted conditions affect you. DVA uses the Guide to Determining Impairment and Compensation (GARP M 2026) to combine them into a rating from 0 to 100 impairment points. Physical and mental impairments are combined, not added.
- You complete the Lifestyle Rating form (D2670) and DVA gives a rating from 0 to 7, based on your relationships, mobility, recreational and community activities, and work and domestic activities.
- GARP M gives a compensation factor for your points and lifestyle rating. Warlike and non-warlike service has higher factors than peacetime service. The factor is multiplied by the maximum weekly rate.
- DVA takes into account any VEA Disability Compensation Payment or DRCA lump sum you've received, so you aren't paid above the MRCA maximum.
The minimum and maximum
You need at least 10 impairment points to receive PI compensation, or 5 points for hearing loss, loss of fingers or toes, or loss of taste or smell. At 80 or more points you receive the maximum of $447.39 a week if you have no accepted VEA or DRCA conditions. Below 80 points you receive a proportion of it. The weekly rates are indexed once a year. See DVA's impairment points table.
If you're assessed at 80 or more points, you may also receive a tax-free lump sum of $115,175.42 for each eligible young person who depends on you: a child under 16, or aged 16 to 25 in full-time education and not working full time. From 1 July 2026 it can be divided between each primary carer of the child.
Weekly payments or a lump sum
PI compensation is paid fortnightly. You can convert part or all of it to a lump sum:
- if your payment is 10% to 20% of the maximum weekly amount: half as a lump sum and half as weekly payments
- above 20%: 25%, 50% or 75% as a lump sum, with the rest paid weekly
The lump sum is worked out from Australian Government Actuary life tables and your age next birthday. There's no age adjustment for men up to 30 or women up to 35. You have six months from DVA's offer to choose, and weekly payments continue until you do. The choice can't be reversed. If you die, the part you took as a lump sum isn't counted in the bereavement payment to your dependent partner or children.
Financial and legal advice isn't compulsory, but DVA strongly recommends it. If you're assessed at 50 or more points, DVA reimburses advice from a licensed financial adviser and a practising lawyer up to $3,397.18.
Read DVA's permanent impairment information
Tax, Centrelink and the service pension
PI compensation is tax-free, whether you take it weekly or as a lump sum. It isn't counted as income by Centrelink or for the service pension, but a lump sum is counted as an asset and, for the service pension, is deemed to earn income. It can also affect Family Tax Benefit and child support. Call Centrelink on 1800 777 653 and ask for the Compensation Recovery Team.
Common law and your PI payment
When PI compensation becomes payable, DVA asks whether you intend to sue the Commonwealth for non-economic loss instead. For a court action started on or after 1 July 2026, damages are capped at $177,000, and the cap isn't indexed. Actions started before then are capped at $110,000. Once you choose to sue, PI compensation for that condition stops being payable, but incapacity payments and treatment continue. The choice can't be undone, and once PI has been paid for a condition you can no longer sue for it. Veterans who are owed DRCA permanent impairment compensation have the same choice and the same cap from 1 July 2026. If you lodge a claim for damages, you must tell DVA in writing within 7 days. Get legal advice before deciding.
If you disagree or your condition worsens
For MRCA decisions, you apply to the Veterans' Review Board within 12 months, and can then go to the Administrative Review Tribunal. Read about DVA reviews and appeals.
If an accepted condition worsens or another condition is accepted, you can claim additional PI compensation once your impairment has increased by at least 5 points, up to the maximum. This also applies to veterans who were covered only by the VEA or DRCA before 1 July 2026. Free advocates can help. Find help with a claim.
Rules that are easy to miss
Suing someone else is different. If another person was partly to blame, for example another driver in a crash on your way home from duty, you can sue them for all your losses. But if you recover any damages from them, however small, DVA stops all compensation for that condition from then on, including treatment on your Veteran Card, and you have to repay the lesser of the damages or what DVA has already paid you for it. You must tell DVA within 7 days of lodging the claim and within 28 days of receiving damages. DVA can instead run the claim itself. If it does, it takes back what it has paid and its costs, pays you the balance, and your compensation for that condition is suspended until the amount you would have received equals that balance.
PI compensation is never paid for any time before your claim. For a new condition it starts from the date you lodged the liability claim, or from the first day of the month in which a doctor estimates the condition became permanent and stable, if that's later. For a condition that has got worse, it starts from the date you told DVA about the worsening. That claim can be made in writing or over the phone, so contact DVA as soon as you notice a condition getting worse rather than waiting for a specialist report.
The six months doesn't start until any review of the decision by the Veterans' Review Board or the Administrative Review Tribunal has finished. DVA can also extend it, before or after the six months run out, if there are special circumstances, and it takes a broad view of what counts. Its examples include not yet having had financial advice, being sick or in hospital, being deployed, losing your job, a death or serious illness in the family and a baby on the way. You need to give a reason. DVA reviews an extension after six months, and a further extension needs a new reason.
The lump sum uses your age next birthday at the date of DVA's offer letter, so a birthday during the six months doesn't reduce it. Weekly payments you receive while you decide are taken off the lump sum, or the matching share of them if you convert only part, but arrears for the time before the offer are paid on top. DVA has 30 days from getting your choice to pay the lump sum and pays interest if it's late. Weekly payments stop when you die, but a lump sum that has been paid is never taken back, which matters if you have a terminal illness.
DVA only pays PI for impairment that's likely to be permanent. It won't treat an impairment as permanent while you're having treatment that could improve it, or if you've unreasonably refused reasonable treatment, including surgery. That impairment is left out of your assessment for now, and your other conditions are still assessed. Refusing isn't unreasonable if the treatment carries a real risk of further injury, if the same treatment has already been tried without success, if it conflicts with your religious beliefs or if your fear of it comes from a mental health condition. It also isn't unreasonable if you weren't told about the medical opinion supporting the treatment.
If you receive ongoing permanent impairment payments and have a dependent child, you can get the Pensioner Education Supplement from Services Australia to help with the cost of your own study. It isn't income or assets tested. It's also available to people with a dependent child who receive a Disability Compensation Payment, including TPI, a war widow(er)'s pension or MRCA compensation as a wholly dependent partner.
Permanent impairment compensation can't start before the date you lodged the claim for the condition, even if you had it for years before that. It starts from the later of that date and the date a doctor says the condition became stable and permanent. Lodge the liability claim as soon as you have a diagnosis rather than waiting until the condition settles.
Common questions
Is there an average DVA payout?
No. DVA doesn't publish one, and two people with the same diagnosis can receive very different amounts. See how the amount is worked out for PTSD, depression and anxiety, knee and back conditions, hearing loss, tinnitus and erectile dysfunction.
Are DVA payments taxable?
Most compensation isn't. PI compensation, the SRDP, the Additional Disablement Amount, the VEA Disability Compensation Payment (including TPI) and compensation for dependants are tax-free. Incapacity payments are generally taxable, and so are the service pension paid on age and Veteran Payment, apart from their supplementary amounts.
What does a DVA payout figure mean?
A published figure is a rate from DVA's tables, not what you'll receive. DVA's weekly amount for each level of points assumes a lifestyle rating in the expected range. Your own lifestyle rating, earlier compensation and, for a lump sum, your age change the real figure.
Checked against DVA's website on 25 September 2026.