Payments from the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) and referrals to the DVA Clearance Team 108-03050010

DVA payments are made under the following legislation:

• Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 (VEA)
• Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (MRCA)
• Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act 1988 (DRCA)

Department of Veterans' Affairs website contains details on the legislation DVA administers. See the Resources page for a link.

DVA can pay Social Security Age Pension to people receiving a Disability Compensation Payment, and their partners. These customers can claim their Age Pension from either DVA or agency.

See the Resources page for a full list of DVA payments.

Multiple entitlement exclusion rules can affect the payability of a benefit, pension, supplement or card when the customer is receiving another payment from Services Australia or another Australian Government agency.

Customers who receive certain entitlement/s from DVA may not be able to receive a payment from the agency and DVA at the same time. Any agency payment the customer is currently receiving is reassessed through a clearance process, after payment information is sent from DVA. An assessment is made to see if the agency payment or benefit should be cancelled. Recording DVA payments makes sure that any future claims made with the agency will have multiple entitlement exclusion rules applied.

A customer may claim a payment from the agency if they have been receiving a Veteran Payment from DVA and are told of the end of their Veteran Payment entitlement period. Check with the DVA Clearance Team before rejecting these claims to begin the transition to agency payments.

The Resources page contains information on how DVA payments may impact payments from the agency

DVA automatically transmits details of grants and variations of certain payments, however this does not replace the customer’s notification obligations.

In cases where the automatic process fails, a manual process will confirm:

• correct income from DVA
• payment outcomes, for example, overpayments

When a customer advises of DVA income, seek confirmation of the type of income and amount from the DVA Clearance Team.

Some DVA payments are treated as income for Social Security purposes. They will affect the rate at which the agency pays a pension or benefit to the customer or their partner.

Payments include:

• War Widow(er)'s Pension (paid under VEA) and Wholly Dependent Partner Payment paid under Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (MRCA) are treated as income for the customer's partner
• Temporary Incapacity Allowance (paid under VEA) is only payable for periods of incapacity before 20 September 2011
• Dependant Allowance (paid under VEA) is only payable for periods before 20 September 2009
• Eligible Young Person payments paid fortnightly (under MRCA) where the young person receives an income support payment
• Other Dependant (under MRCA) where the young person receives an income support payment
• Prescribed Child - (under MRCA) where the young person receives an income support payment
• Adequate Means of Support. This payment has not been granted since 6 June 1986, however a small number of customers may still receive this payment

Veterans in receipt of a Disability Compensation Payment from DVA, who are also eligible to receive a Social Security Age Pension (and their partners who are eligible for Age Pension), have the choice of receiving their Age Pension from either DVA or the agency. Any Social Security Age Pension paid by DVA is assessed under Social Security law.

The following payments represent compensation for loss of income or earnings and are treated as true compensation payments for Social Security purposes.

• Incapacity Payment under Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (MRCA)
• Incapacity Payment under Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act 1988 (DRCA)

Only the Compensation Team assess the above payments.

See Treatment of Compensation Payments for more details.

A mutual customer who receives a Disability Compensation Payment at the Special Rate - Totally and Permanently Incapacitated (TPI) paid by DVA under the Veterans Entitlements Act (1986) satisfies manifest medical eligibility criteria. This means if a claim is made for DSP with the agency, it may be determined without the need for further medical assessment.

Note: this payment is not the same as the 'Special Rate Disability Pension (SRDP)' paid by DVA under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (MRCA). SRDP does not automatically satisfy manifest eligibility. See Disability Support Pension (DSP) manifest eligibility.

DVA makes payments to widow/ers (married/de facto/in a recognised relationship) of veterans when the death is service related.

These payments include:

• Wholly Dependent Partner payment (WDP), paid under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (MRCA)
• War Widow(er)'s Pension (WWP), paid under the Veteran’s Entitlements Act 1986 (VEA)
• Income Support Supplement (ISS), paid under the Veteran’s Entitlements Act 1986 (VEA). This an income support payment only paid to war widow/ers

Customers who receive a widow/er payment from DVA cannot receive income support payments from the agency. They may be entitled to an Income Support Supplement from DVA instead.

WDP can be paid fortnightly, as a lump sum or as a combination of the two. Customers who elect to receive a lump sum are still considered to be receiving a widow/er payment.

See:

• Resources page for further information about these payments.
• DVA income and family assistance payments for details on WDP, and implications for family assistance payments

A Parental Income Test (PIT) exemption may apply if a parent or guardian is receiving certain DVA payments and:

• receives Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC), or
• has a dependent child(ren) who receive or apply for:
• Youth Allowance (YA), or
• ABSTUDY Living Allowance

If there is no PIT exemption, the DVA payment may count as taxable income or a tax-free pension/benefit under the Parental Income Test.

For more details, see Tax-free pensions and benefits for family assistance and Paid Parental Leave scheme payments, and the Parental Income Test for Youth Allowance, ABSTUDY and Assistance for Isolated Children.

Some DVA payments are included in adjusted taxable income for Family Assistance.

When a Family Assistance new claim includes a DVA payment, create a referral to the DVA Clearance Team.

A DVA income support payment coded on the customer's or partner’s record will automatically apply the income test exemption to the customer's rate of FTB Part A.

DVA income support payments are:

• Service Pension
• Veteran Payment
• Income Support Supplement (ISS)
• Social Security Age Pension paid by DVA

Customers must include these payments in their income estimate to assess the correct entitlement to FTB Part B and Child Care Subsidy (CCS). All customers must provide an estimate of their annual income, including income support payments from DVA.

Customers receiving FTB and CCS must include the following DVA payments when advising estimated Adjusted Taxable Income (ATI) for family assistance payments:

• MRCA Compensation payments (tax-free pensions or lump sums), including Special Rate Disability Pension and Permanent Impairment
• Wholly Dependent Partner payments, including lump sums and arrears in the financial year they were received
• Defence Force Income Support Allowance (DFISA), for periods before 1 January 2022
• Invalidity and Partner Service Pensions paid to those who have not reached Age Pension age (not taxable)
• Adjusted Disability Pensions
• War Widows(er)'s Pension
• Incapacity Payments

DVA Student Payments, including shared care arrangements

When Veterans' Children Education Scheme (VCES) or Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act Education and Training Scheme (MRCAETS) payment is paid for a child:

• FTB is payable to the parent/carer until the child turns 16
• FTB is not payable to the parent/carer after a child turns 16

If the child is transferred to VCES or MRCAETS, and the parent is not receiving FTB for another child, any FTB Rent Assistance will be lost.

Where there are shared care arrangements:

• each parent/carer may choose to receive different payments for the same child
• one parent/carer may receive VCES or MRCAETS for a child, and the other parent/carer may receive FTB for the same child, including after they turn 16 years
• both parents/carers are paid their shared care percentage of the payment they choose to receive

See

• Updating income estimates for the current financial year for more details on the treatment of DVA income for FTB
• Resources page for a list of DVA payments

Customers cannot receive education payments from both DVA and the agency, due to multiple entitlement exclusion rules.

Veterans' Children Education Scheme (VCES) and Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act Education and Training Scheme (MRCAETS) recipients cannot receive Youth Allowance (YA), Austudy, ABSTUDY and Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC).

VCES and MRCAETS payments are treated as income only for the following Social Security income support payments:

• Disability Support Pension
• Carer Payment
• Parenting Payment

The DVA Clearance Team must notify DVA when they became aware of the grant of an agency payment because a customer cannot receive VCES or MRCAETS and any other income support payment at the same time.

This information is not exchanged through the automated data exchange.

Information and data is exchanged between DVA and the agency, however this does not remove the customer’s notification obligations.

A clearance can occur via automated or manual data exchange. A Service Officer may complete a manual intervention when data cannot be loaded on a record automatically, and further assessment is needed. This includes when the payment type is not part of the automated exchange.

The clearance process makes sure that:

• DVA customer records are identified, linked to or unlinked from corresponding agency records
• mutually exclusive entitlements are not paid by both the agency and DVA at the same time
• where eligible, a customer can transition between income support payments without interruption
• payments are coded with correct dates and rates
• the agency and DVA can recover overpayments

A DVA Clearance is when the DVA sends information to the agency about a grant or change to a DVA benefit. A DVA Clearance is needed for:

• a new claim assessment
• an Aged Care assessment that the agency will complete
• when a customer says they are receiving a payment from DVA

A DVA Reverse Clearance is when the agency sends information to DVA about a change to an agency payment or benefit.

The Services Australia DVA Clearance Team

This is a specialist team that completes all DVA clearances. The team are the direct liaison point with DVA except for specific work done through the DVA Standardised Service Offer. The DVA Clearance Team's role includes:

• read only access to DVA customer payment records to verify details
• coding the Department of Veterans' Affairs Summary (DVAS) screen for all DVA income

See the Process page for steps to refer DVA payment verification and coding to the DVA Clearance Team.

Automatic debt calculation and recovery

If an agency debt results from the grant of a DVA payment, the agency transfers the debt information to DVA as part of an automated recovery process. DVA will recover the agency debt from a customer's DVA arrears, and return the information to the agency. The details are placed on the customer's debt record, and finalised automatically. If there are not enough funds in the DVA arrears to recover the agency debt in full, the residual amount will remain on the customer's agency record.

Manual debt calculation and recovery

The agency's system may be unable to automatically calculate a debt amount due to:

• a limiting date
• a cancelled payment record
• manual rate case, or
• where conflicting data exists

In these cases, the system will automatically generate a manual follow up for action.

DVA may recover a debt on the agency's behalf, see Recovery of debts via the Department of Veterans, Affairs (DVA) for more details.