The VEA Application for Increase Is Gone. Here Is What Replaced It

If your conditions have worsened and you were planning to lodge an Application for Increase, you can't. From 1 July 2026 the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 is closed to new claims for Disability Compensation Payment, and the Application for Increase went with it. Worsening is now claimed through permanent impairment compensation under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004.

This is the single biggest practical change for VEA veterans, and almost nobody has explained it properly. Your existing pension is safe. What changes is the mechanism you use to claim more, the guide DVA assesses you under, and the form the money arrives in.

What actually closed on 1 July

Two separate things ended, and it helps to keep them apart.

New claims for Disability Compensation Payment under the VEA are no longer accepted. If you have never had a DCP and you lodge now, DVA will not assess it under the VEA at all.

The Application for Increase, which was the VEA process for asking DVA to reassess your degree of incapacity upward, is also gone. It has been replaced by a claim for MRCA permanent impairment compensation.

Neither of these touches what you are already being paid. Existing Disability Compensation Payments are grandparented. They continue uninterrupted and continue to be indexed twice yearly as normal. That includes the General Rate, the Special Rate (TPI), the Temporary Special Rate (TTI), and the Extreme Disablement Adjustment. Nobody's pension is being cut, converted, or reassessed against their will.

Why this matters more than it sounds

An Application for Increase and an MRCA permanent impairment claim are not the same process wearing different names. They use different assessment guides, produce different outputs, and pay in a different form.

Under the VEA, your accepted conditions were assessed under GARP V to produce a degree of incapacity expressed as a percentage of the General Rate. Ten per cent, 40 per cent, 100 per cent. That percentage drove a fortnightly pension paid for life.

Under the MRCA, your accepted conditions are assessed under the Guide to Determining Impairment and Compensation 2026, known as GARP M. That produces impairment points on a scale of 0 to 100, plus a lifestyle rating. Those two figures are converted through Chapter 23 into a compensation factor, which is multiplied by the maximum permanent impairment amount to give what you are owed.

The output is not a percentage and it is not automatically a fortnightly pension. MRCA permanent impairment can be paid as a weekly amount, or converted to an age-based lump sum, or split between the two.

Your previously accepted conditions come across automatically

You do not need to re-claim liability for anything DVA has already accepted. Section 24A of the MRCA treats conditions previously accepted under the VEA or the DRCA as accepted MRCA conditions. There is no form for this and no action required from you.

That matters because it means a VEA veteran with five accepted conditions from 1998 walks into an MRCA permanent impairment assessment with all five already on the table. You are not starting again.

The baseline, and the five point rule

Here is where most veterans will get caught out.

Because DVA has already compensated you for those conditions under the VEA, it does not simply assess you under GARP M and pay the whole result. Chapter 26 of the Guide to Determining Impairment and Compensation 2026 works out a baseline impairment rating first. Chapter 25 then measures your new assessment against it.

For a veteran with VEA accepted conditions and no DRCA conditions, the baseline is straightforward. It is the unrounded impairment rating under the approved VEA guide that was used to determine your last entitlement to a pension under Part II or Part IV.

Unrounded is the operative word. VEA pension percentages are rounded. The impairment rating sitting underneath usually is not, and it is the underlying figure that Chapter 26 uses.

If your Step 1 assessment is not at least five impairment points above that baseline, Chapter 25 requires the claim to be rejected. Not reduced. Rejected.

The corollary is that a stale VEA assessment is an asset. If your conditions were last rated in 2009 and have deteriorated since, that 2009 figure is your starting line and everything above it is claimable.

The ceiling most VEA veterans hit

Chapter 25 applies a cap that catches a lot of people.

DVA adds together the compensation worked out for your new assessment, the notional weekly equivalent of your VEA pension, and any permanent impairment compensation already paid. Where that total exceeds the MRCA permanent impairment compensation maximum, the excess is subtracted.

This is why TPI veterans cannot access further permanent impairment compensation. The VEA Special Rate already sits above the MRCA maximum weekly rate, so the ceiling is reached before anything else is added.

If you are on the Special Rate, a permanent impairment claim will not produce a further payment. There may still be reasons to lodge, including household services access and establishing eligibility that flows through to your dependants, but additional compensation is not one of them.

VEA conditions are treated as warlike or non-warlike service

This is a technical point with real money attached, and it is buried in DVA policy rather than anywhere a veteran would find it.

When your impairment arises from a mix of service types, the compensation factor is calculated using the combined ratings formula in Chapter 23 of GARP M, commonly called the weighted compensation factor. Peacetime service attracts a lower factor than warlike or non-warlike service.

DVA's agreed methodology is that conditions accepted under the VEA are treated as though they relate to warlike or non-warlike service. Conditions accepted under the DRCA are treated as though they relate to peacetime service. Where a condition was accepted under both, it is treated as warlike or non-warlike.

For a VEA veteran, that is favourable. It means your existing accepted conditions carry the higher service differential into the MRCA calculation.

Where two or more conditions accepted under different Acts affect the same body system, apportionment under Chapter 20 of GARP M may be applied to work out what each condition separately contributes to your overall functional impairment.

What this means depending on where you sit

What to actually do

Get your conditions properly reassessed before you lodge. An MRCA permanent impairment claim assesses you as a whole person, so every accepted condition contributes, including ones that were worth nothing under older thresholds. Going in with stale medical evidence on three conditions when you have eight accepted is how veterans end up under-rated.

Pull your last VEA assessment. You need to know what you were rated at and which conditions attracted compensation, because that is what your baseline is built from.

Get current specialist evidence on the conditions that have deteriorated. GARP M assessment is driven by measured function, not by how long you have had the condition.

Check where the whole-of-person figure lands you against the thresholds that unlock other entitlements. Fifty points opens the Special Rate Disability Pension pathway. Sixty points opens a Gold Card. Seventy points with a lifestyle rating of 6 opens the Additional Disablement Amount. You can estimate where you sit with our permanent impairment calculator.

Frequently asked questions

Can I still lodge an Application for Increase under the VEA?

No. The VEA closed to new Disability Compensation Payment claims on 1 July 2026, and the Application for Increase went with it. Worsening of VEA-accepted conditions is now claimed as MRCA permanent impairment compensation.

Will my current VEA pension be reduced or converted?

No. Payments already being received under the VEA are grandparented. They continue uninterrupted and are indexed as normal. Claiming MRCA permanent impairment does not put your existing DCP at risk.

Do I have to re-claim liability for my accepted conditions?

No. Section 24A of the MRCA treats conditions already accepted under the VEA or DRCA as accepted MRCA conditions. You claim permanent impairment, not liability.

How much worsening do I need before I get paid?

Your impairment must have increased by at least five points above the baseline DVA establishes from your previously compensated conditions. Below five points, no additional compensation is payable.

Will I get a lump sum or a fortnightly payment?

MRCA permanent impairment can be taken as a periodic payment or converted to an age-based lump sum, or split. The lump sum conversion is age-based, so the younger you are the more it is worth. This is a permanent choice and worth getting advice on before you elect.

I served before 1971. Can I claim at all?

Yes. From 1 July 2026 the MRCA accepts claims regardless of when you served, including pre-1971 service and National Service, both full-time and part-time Citizen Military Forces.

Get your assessment right the first time

If you are sitting on worsened conditions and were waiting to lodge an Application for Increase, the process has changed underneath you. We map your accepted conditions against GARP M, work out where your baseline is likely to land, and build the permanent impairment claim properly.