If DVA rejects your claim or you disagree with a compensation decision, you can ask the Veterans' Review Board (VRB) to review it. For most decisions made from 21 April 2025, you apply directly to the VRB within 12 months. If the Board doesn't resolve it in your favour, you can appeal to the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) within 3 months of the Board's decision. Both reviews are free.
What to do if your DVA claim is rejected
- Read the reasons in your decision letter. It tells you which Act the decision was made under, who can review it and the time limit.
- If you don't understand the decision, contact DVA using the details in the letter and ask the decision maker to explain it.
- Talk to a free advocate from an ex-service organisation. They can help you decide whether to seek a review and what evidence might help.
- Apply for a review before the time limit ends. Say why you think the decision is wrong and include any new evidence.
Which review path applies to your decision
Since 21 April 2025, a single review pathway applies to eligible decisions across the VEA, the DRCA and the MRCA. Income support and qualifying service decisions follow a different path and can't go to the VRB.
| Decision | First review | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| Compensation and liability decisions under the MRCA, VEA or DRCA made from 21 April 2025, including all new claims from 1 July 2026 | Veterans' Review Board | Administrative Review Tribunal |
| Service pension, Income Support Supplement, Veteran Payment, qualifying service, Commonwealth Seniors Health Card and VEA funeral benefits | A DVA Review Officer who didn't make the original decision | Administrative Review Tribunal |
| Age Pension paid by DVA | An Authorised Review Officer | Administrative Review Tribunal |
Some allowance, travel and aids and appliances decisions have their own review steps. Your decision letter says which one applies.
DVA appeal time limits
| Decision | Time to apply |
|---|---|
| MRCA decisions, including all claims lodged from 1 July 2026 | 12 months, to the VRB |
| DRCA decisions made from 21 April 2025 | 12 months, to the VRB |
| VEA decisions about whether a condition or death is service-related | 12 months, to the VRB, but maximum arrears are only paid if you apply within 3 months |
| VEA decisions on the rate of your pension or attendant allowance | 3 months, to the VRB |
| Income support decisions | 3 months, to DVA |
| Appeal against a VRB decision | 3 months, to the ART |
The time limit runs from when you receive notice of the decision. The VRB can't extend its time limits, so apply early even if you're still gathering evidence. The ART can accept a late application if you ask in writing and give reasons, but a late appeal may reduce how far back any payment is made.
Decisions made before 21 April 2025 followed the older rules for their Act. Reviews already under way on that date continue under the old process.
Read DVA's single review pathway information
How to apply to the Veterans' Review Board
The VRB is a specialist tribunal, independent of DVA, that takes a fresh look at the facts, the law and policy and makes its own decision. For decisions made from 21 April 2025, you apply to the VRB directly, not through DVA:
- by email to [email protected], using the application form on vrb.gov.au
- by post to Veterans' Review Board, GPO Box 1631, Sydney NSW 2001
Include your name and contact details, your DVA client number, the date you received the decision, its reference number, a copy of the decision and brief reasons why you think it's wrong.
Once the VRB tells DVA about your application, DVA has 28 days to send you a report of the evidence behind the decision, often called the section 352D documents. You can send DVA written comments on the report within 28 days.
What happens at the Veterans' Review Board
Most applications start with an outreach, a short, informal and confidential discussion with a VRB Conference Registrar or Member by phone, video or in person. They ask why you disagree with the decision and help identify the issues. If your case can be resolved in your favour on the papers, you'll get a draft decision, and the VRB makes it final if you accept it.
If dispute resolution doesn't settle your case, it goes to a hearing before three members: a Senior Member, a Services Member and a Member. Services Members have military experience. Hearings are private, usually take less than an hour and are less formal than a court. DVA generally doesn't send anyone. You can bring a support person or take part by phone or video.
The VRB says a case resolved through dispute resolution may take 3 to 6 months, and longer if it goes to a hearing.
Read DVA's information about the VRB
Getting help and paying for a review
A VRB review costs nothing. Lawyers can't represent you at a VRB hearing, but they can help you prepare written submissions and take part in dispute resolution. Many ex-service organisations, and Legal Aid Commissions in some states, provide free advocates. You can search the advocate register or find claims and advocacy support.
DVA may reimburse the cost of medical reports you obtain for your VRB review and some travel costs. Use DVA's claim for costs of medical evidence form. Neither DVA nor the VRB pays for a representative who charges a fee.
A rejected claim can be stressful. Open Arms offers free counselling to veterans and families 24 hours a day on 1800 011 046. In an emergency, call 000.
Appealing to the Administrative Review Tribunal
The ART replaced the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on 14 October 2024. It reviews most MRCA and VEA compensation decisions only after the VRB has decided them. The ART can affirm the decision, vary it, replace it with a new decision or send it back to DVA to reconsider.
There's no fee to apply for review of a decision under the MRCA, DRCA or VEA. You can apply online at art.gov.au, by phone on 1800 228 333 or by email to [email protected]. You can represent yourself or have an advocate, friend, family member or lawyer represent you. Legal Aid may be available if the ART is reviewing a VRB decision.
How the 1 July 2026 changes affect reviews
From 1 July 2026, all new compensation and rehabilitation claims are decided under the MRCA, and the standard time to seek a review is 12 months. The review path itself didn't change: the VRB first, then the ART. Read about the 2026 legislation changes.
If the Statement of Principles for your condition is updated between DVA's original decision and the review decision, the version that is more beneficial to you is applied.
You can't ask DVA to reconsider an MRCA decision itself; you apply to the VRB. DVA can still reconsider a decision on its own initiative before the VRB decides it.
Treatment during an appeal
If you were getting treatment under PAMT and your claim is rejected, PAMT keeps covering treatment while you appeal. If you don't appeal, it stops. Read about PAMT.
Rules that are easy to miss
If DVA refuses a claim, you can't simply lodge the same claim again straight away. The law bars a new claim for the same condition until the first one is final, which means the 12-month review period has ended or any review is over. The new claim also needs evidence DVA didn't have before. In most cases, asking the Veterans' Review Board for a review within 12 months is the quicker route.
To see what DVA holds about your claim, send a personal information request using DVA's online form or by email to [email protected]. It's free, DVA aims to answer within 30 days, and the MRCA gives anyone who has made a claim the right to documents relating to it. If you're not satisfied with what's released, you can then make a formal Freedom of Information request.
The law also says no one can ask for or accept a fee, reward or expenses for representing you at a Veterans' Review Board review. If a business wants to charge you for it, use a free ex-service organisation advocate instead.
DVA only repays a medical report you got after you received the decision you're appealing. Claim the cost within 3 months of giving the report to the Board, because late claims aren't paid. There's a limit for each medical condition. Claim travel to get the report within 12 months of the trip. That includes a companion's travel if you reasonably needed one with you.
Think carefully before withdrawing a Board application. A withdrawal ends the review, and it can't be restarted. If you need more time for evidence, ask the Board instead. If your application is dismissed because you missed an outreach, conference or hearing, you have 28 days from the dismissal notice to ask for it to be reinstated.
Common questions
What is the DVA 6-month review?
It isn't an appeal. It's the Veteran's Six Monthly Review in DVA's medicine organiser (dose administration aid) service, where your pharmacist checks after 20 weeks how the pack is working and advises your GP whether to continue.
Checked against DVA's website on 25 September 2026.