DVA Service Pension
The service pension provides a regular income to veterans and their partners. It is an income support payment, so your income and assets affect how much you can receive.
What is a DVA Service Pension?
The DVA service pension provides a regular income to veterans and their partners. It is an income support payment, so your income and assets affect how much you can receive. A service pension can be paid to eligible veterans on the grounds of age or invalidity, and to eligible partners, former partners, widows and widowers.
The DVA service pension and partner service pension is paid earlier than the Age Pension paid by Centrelink, recognising that intangible effects of war may result in premature ageing of the veteran and/or loss of earning power.
The DVA service pension is paid fortnightly. The rate of DVA service pension is adjusted twice-yearly, in March and September, in line with movements in the cost of living and/or average wages.
To be a veteran you must have rendered eligible war service, meaning continuous full-time service in one of the following roles:
- as a member of the Australian Defence Force in various wars and conflicts
- as a member of the Defence Forces of a Commonwealth or Allied country in specific circumstances during various wars and conflicts
- as an Australian mariner or Allied mariner during World War 2
- in certain specific circumstances, as a civilian.
You may be eligible on the basis of age or invalidity as per below:
- Qualifying age is 60 years for both males and females.
- You may be eligible for invalidity service pension if you are permanently incapacitated for work. The incapacity preventing you from working does not need to be related to your service.
Partner service pension is also payable to widows and widowers of veterans who were receiving partner service pension at the time of the veteran’s death, or who were receiving a social security pension at the time of the veteran’s death. These widows and widowers must be qualifying age or have a dependent child/children to be eligible when claiming partner service pension.
A widow or widower who was not receiving a partner service pension or social security pension at the time of the veteran’s death must be qualified for Centrelink age pension (i.e. be of pension age for Centrelink age pension rather than the lower qualifying age set out above).
Refer to https://www.dva.gov.au/ for current pension payment rates.
Important information regarding this information
This information is of a general nature. It does not consider your personal objectives, needs or situation. It does not represent legal, tax or personal advice and should not be taken as such. If it has been provided to you with a Statement of Advice (SoA), you should rely on the personal advice in the SoA.
Care has been taken to provide up to date and accurate information relating to the subject area however BR Advice Pty Ltd (ABN 30 612 056 523, AFSL 488655), Blue Rock Private Wealth Pty Ltd (ABN 95 166 927 055, AFSL 452733), and their representatives make no representation as to its accuracy or completeness.
Published: July 2025.
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