What is consent?
Giving consent for a family member or an advocate to access your personal information is an important part of protecting your privacy. We only share your information if you have provided informed consent, or where the law allows the release of information without your consent.
You have the choice to give your partner, family member, an advocate, another person or an organisation of your choice access to your information. You can limit what information is released to them and withdraw or change your consent at any time.
Consent is giving permission for others to act on your behalf to access or use your personal information. It is important that you consider who you would like to give access to your personal records and information, or who can act on your behalf.
We prioritise protecting you and your privacy and will ask for your consent at different times. This can include requesting your consent when you ask for information about:
- our services
- your means-tested pension or payment
- Open Arms services.
We may also ask for your consent to request your personal information from other organisations, such as Defence or from your medical practitioners.
You have the option to give consent for people to act on your behalf. You are in control of who you give consent to access your personal information.
Why is consent important?
Generally, we will only release your information when we have your consent. For example, if you have given your partner consent to act on your behalf about your Service Pension, this does not give them permission to access information about your compensation claim. You need to give consent for your partner to access information relating to your compensation claim separately.
How to give your consent
You can give consent for your partner, family member, a person or an organisation to access your information. To protect your privacy, we do not have one generic form for consent. There are different DVA consent forms for specific information requests listed below.
If someone is requesting your personal information from us on your behalf, they will need to have your consent. For details on ways to access information see
Types of consent and authorisation
Partner Consent
You only need to complete this consent form if you have a current partner. This form allows both members of a couple to consent to the collection and sharing of relevant personal and financial information between each member.
By completing this form, you agree that DVA can:
- collect personal information about you, including relationship and financial information, from your partner directly
- use personal information about you and your partner, including relationship and financial information to assess a claim made by yourself or your partner (either a joint partner claim or a single claim) or a change of circumstance
- receive further personal information from your partner about you that is relevant to the processing of a claim or change of circumstance
- disclose your personal information to your partner where relevant to your partner’s own eligibility.
- be notified by either you or your partner of any changes of circumstance to any individually or jointly owned income and assets on behalf of the other.
Your consent will remain valid until you or your partner withdraws consent.
If you and your partner both complete Form D9378, we can offer the following stream-lined services:
- only one member of a couple needs to make an online claim for income support pension or Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) on behalf of both members of a couple
- if further information is required to decide a claim for income support pension or CSHC, we may only need to discuss or receive information from one member of a couple
- where DVA provides payments or a card to one or both members of a couple, only one member will need to notify us of relevant changes of circumstances to income and assets on behalf of you both
- where one member of a couple already receives a DVA payment or CSHC and the other member wishes to apply, the current beneficiary’s information may be used in assessing their partner’s claim
Providing consent will generally mean that we only need discuss a claim with or receive change of circumstance notifications from one member of the couple.
If you and/or your partner do not wish to provide consent to share information, processing of your claims and/or change of circumstance notifications may take longer due to the need to seek confirmation of information from both you and your partner separately.
You can contact us to discuss this further.
Consent for a family member or a third party
You can nominate a person, family member or an organisation to act as a representative to interact with us on your behalf. You are in control of your nominated representative’s authority to act and what personal information they can access.
There are 4 different types of representatives:
- Permission to Enquire
- Permission to Act
- Permission to Act – Health
- Permission to Receive Payment
You have the option to choose how long you would like the representation to last for by completing Part B of the form. There is the option here to select a set duration of time or indefinitely.
For further information see What is a representative?
Consent when someone passes away
If you are a family member, advocate or representative of a veteran or a non-veteran partner who has passed away, you may find that you need to access their information.
We understand that this is a difficult time for you, and we are here to support you.
Please contact us to talk about the informal ways you can access the personal information of someone who passed away and the evidence needed to show your legal entitlement to the information.
Evidence of legal authority
We will need to verify evidence of your legal entitlement to access this information.
You will need to provide documents that confirm your legal authority, such as a Will, Grant of Probate, Letter of Administration. This is necessary particularly where your relationship status with the deceased client is unclear. For example, where authority from the client’s next of kin has not been provided.
If there is no evidence of your legal authority to access the deceased client’s information, you will need to provide evidence of your relationship with the deceased client. This includes a Marriage Certificate, Birth Certificate, Death Certificate, or evidence of shared residency.
Additionally, we will work with advocates, nominated representatives and executors of wills to confirm the deceased client’s existing consent to disclose information.
Where we are unable to release information, we will provide you with clear guidance on the reasons why the information cannot be disclosed and an outline of the next steps or alternative options available to you.
Formal requests (FOI)
You can also submit a formal request to access information under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act) where you have a right of review of the information released however there may be charges.
For further information see Freedom of Information.
Thinking about the future
You may wish to plan ahead and think about who will have to access your records if something happens, and you are unable to look after your affairs.
The Planning Ahead kit is a publication designed to help veterans and their families prepare for bereavement.
A Power of Attorney will give a person of your choice the authority to make decisions about your finances and health care. You are in control of the type of authority you consent to, such as a general or an enduring Power of Attorney with options to limit certain decisions, add conditions and specific directions.
DVA can provide information to a person appointed under a current Power of Attorney, an executor, or administrator under a will.
For further information see What is a representative?
How to withdraw your consent
You can withdraw your consent at any time by calling DVA on 1800 VETERAN (1800 838 372).
When consent is not required
In some emergency and law enforcement circumstances the Department can disclose personal information without consent. This falls under the Australian Privacy Principle 6 and includes circumstances where DVA is served with Court orders or subpoenas or notices to produce information or evidence.
Further information can be found in the Australian Privacy Principles Guidelines.
Open Arms - Veterans and Families Counselling
Open Arms is a counselling service administered by DVA that specialises in providing free face-to-face and/or tele-health counselling, care coordination, group programs and peer support.
If you have appointments with Open Arms, you will be asked to provide consent. This is to protect your privacy and ensure confidentiality. Open Arms will use your information for the purpose of providing you with Open Arms counselling services and will only disclose your information with your consent or as required or allowed by law. For quality improvement purposes, clinical governance staff undertake clinical audits of your files. This is explained in the consent forms you will be asked to sign.
Further information is available at Open Arms - Veterans & Families Counselling.
Open Arms are committed to your privacy and confidentiality.