VEA Partners

What will happen from 1 July 2026?

Any compensation being received under the VEA and/or DRCA before 1 July 2026 will continue to be paid. Payment will continue to be indexed as normal.

Any new claims lodged from 1 July 2026 will be assessed under the MRCA.

Automatic grants of War Widow(er)’s pension and Gold Cards to dependants of certain deceased VEA veterans will continue from 1 July 2026. As these benefits don’t need to be claimed, they will automatically be paid under the existing provisions of the VEA.

When is compensation provided to dependants under the MRCA?

• Where the veteran’s death has been accepted as service caused.
• The deceased veteran was SRDP eligible.
• The deceased veteran was assessed at 80 or more permanent impairment points.
• The deceased veteran was ADA eligible (from 1 July 2026).

Wholly Dependent Partners

Widow(er)s under the MRCA are known as ‘Wholly Dependent Partners’. Should you need to make a new claim from 1 July 2026 it will be subject to the eligibility criteria (and benefits) under the MRCA. You may be eligible for:

• A tax-free weekly payment. The partner may elect to convert the payment to an age based lump sum.
• An additional age-based lump sum where the death is service caused.
• Gold Card for life.

No additional compensation is payable for dependants who have been granted compensation before 1 July 2026.

Visit the DVA website Compensation for Dependants page for more information on additional supports that may be eligible to you.

Funeral Compensation

An increase to $3,000 for funeral allowance for previous automatic grant categories currently covered under the VEA. 

Funeral compensation with a combined cap of $14,990.43 (indexed on 1 July each year) will be available for claims lodged on or after the date of commencement where the death was service caused, the veteran was SRDP or ADA eligible, or the veteran was assessed at 80 or more impairment points.

Additional Resources

There is a range of additional resources available on the Legislation Reform website covering a variety of topics. These include the Veteran Card, Additional Disablement Amount (ADA) and Compensation for Dependants.

There are individual pages for different veteran cohorts including DRCA veterans, MRCA veterans, VEA veterans and family members of veterans.