DVA benefits - Families of Veterans Guild

Your DVA Entitlements, a webinar for war widows

Kelly Taylor — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 03:12:52 +0000

Families of Veterans Guild, in collaboration with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA), hosted in July 2025 a dedicated and exclusive webinar for war widows to better understand the entitlements and services available to them through DVA.

The webinar was recorded live and is now available on our YouTube channel for anyone who couldn’t attend. Below is a friendly and informative summary to what was shared about the four key programs so you can navigate the information you might be after. A short recording clip of each program is available on our YouTube and also shared below.

DVA Community Nursing Program

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) Community Nursing Program helps war widows remain at home longer rather than entering hospital or residential aged care. Contracted providers assess care requirements and deliver services such as wound care, medication administration, palliative care, and clinically required personal care.

Eligibility

Gold Card holders can access community nursing for any assessed need, while White Card holders can receive care related to their accepted conditions. All services are free of charge for those who are eligible, with no caps or hidden costs.

Access

Referrals can come from a GP, treating doctor in hospital, a hospital discharge planner, or a nurse practitioner. Clients can choose their preferred provider from the DVA panel. A registered nurse completes a comprehensive assessment, develops a care plan with the client, and oversees care, which can be short-term or ongoing.

The program does not cover respite, overnight supervision without a clinical need, or instrumental activities of daily living (e.g. laundry, cleaning, shopping, meal preparation, driving, companionship). These supports may be accessed through Veterans’ Home Care or My Aged Care, provided there is no duplication.

Watch the recording of this session on the DVA Community Nursing Program here.

Income Support Supplement (ISS)

The Income Support Supplement (ISS) is a regular, tax-free payment from DVA, paid fortnightly to help with everyday living costs. It can only be received by Australian war widows and widowers under the VEA or Wholly Dependent Partners under the MRCA, and it is means tested against income and assets.

Eligibility

To claim ISS, you must be an Australian resident, in Australia when lodging your claim, and already receiving the War Widow(er)’s Pension. In some cases, ISS is automatically granted when a service or social security pension is cancelled and replaced by a war widow(er)’s payment.

The maximum ISS is $347.60 per fortnight, indexed every March and September. The amount depends on your income, assets, and whether you are single or partnered. Some widows/widowers may receive the full rate.

Watch the recording of this session on the Income Support Supplement (ISS) here.

Transport Support

DVA provides transport assistance for veterans and war widows who need to travel for approved medical treatment within Australia (that is, treatment paid for with a Gold or White Card at the closest provider). Support is offered in four main ways:

Book Car (DVA-arranged travel): A contracted taxi service available nationwide. Gold Card holders aged 80+ can use it for all medical treatment. Under 80, it is limited to specified locations (e.g. hospitals, specialists). White Card holders may use it for accepted conditions only.
Reimbursement: War widows can claim back travel costs when using their own car, taxis, buses, or trains, via the D800 claim form or online through MyService. Payments are usually made within 7–10 days.
Flights and long-distance travel: For those in regional areas, DVA can arrange flights for specialist treatment and reimburse accommodation and meal costs when travel exceeds 300 km.
Ambulance services: DVA contracts with state ambulance authorities, so eligible widows are not billed. Both emergency and non-emergency transport are covered.

Watch the recording of this session on Transport Support here.

Veterans’ Home Care (VHC)

The Veterans’ Home Care (VHC) program provides in-home care and support services to help war widows maintain independence at home. Services include:

Domestic assistance (cleaning, washing, vacuuming, bed making, dishwashing, etc.)
Personal care (non-clinical help with eating, bathing, dressing, grooming, etc.)
Home and garden maintenance (up to 15 hours per year)
Respite care (in-home, residential, or emergency relief)
Social assistance (support with community-based activities through the Coordinated Veterans’ Care program)

Eligibility

A Gold or White Card is required. To access VHC, call 1300 550 450 to speak to an assessment agency. Assessments are usually completed over the phone in about 30 minutes. Approved services are then allocated to contracted providers, and a care plan is issued. Services are reviewed every six months.

Watch the recording of this session on Veterans’ Home Care (VHC) here.

The post Your DVA Entitlements, a webinar for war widows first appeared on Families of Veterans Guild.

Your DVA Entitlements, a webinar for war widows

Kelly Taylor — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 04:00:46 +0000

The webinar was recorded live and is now available on our YouTube channel for anyone who couldn’t attend. Whether you are newly widowed or navigating support systems for some time, watching this webinar recording is an important opportunity to connect directly with DVA representatives and gain clarity on what assistance and programs are available to you.

About the Webinar

This webinar was developed exclusively for war widows, to ensure that the information shared is relevant, accurate and respectful of your lived experience. In this recording, you’ll hear from four DVA representatives, each covering a specific area of support and entitlements available to war widows.

After each presentation, attendees had the chance to ask questions during live Q&A sessions.

Meet the Panel

We were pleased to introduce the following DVA representatives:

Sharon Wardle – Team Leader Income Support New Claims
Sharon provided an overview of the income support available to eligible war widows.

Jonathan Levy – Director, Health Approvals, Payments, RAP and Transport
Jonathan spoke about transport entitlements.

Melanie Kilborn – Assistant Director of the Veterans’ Home Care and Contract Management Team
Melanie explained how the Veterans’ Home Care program can help you remain safe and independent in your home.

Carolyn Lees – Director, Community Nursing Program
Carolyn outlined the Community Nursing Program, designed to support eligible war widows with clinical care at home.

This session was facilitated by Caroline Kirche, Communications & Events Manager at the Families of Veterans Guild. We are proud to present this opportunity to ensure that no war widow feels left behind when navigating their DVA entitlements.

Watch the Webinar here or view below.

The post Your DVA Entitlements, a webinar for war widows first appeared on Families of Veterans Guild.

Upcoming webinar: understanding DVA entitlements for war widows

Caroline Kirche — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 07:28:00 +0000

Families of Veterans Guild, in collaboration with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA), is hosting a dedicated and exclusive webinar for war widows to better understand the entitlements and services available to them through DVA.

Whether you are newly widowed or navigating support systems for some time, this is an important opportunity to connect directly with DVA representatives and gain clarity on what assistance and programs are available to you.

Event details:

Date: Thursday 31 July
Time: 1:00pm AEST
Where: Online via Zoom or in person at our Chatswood office
Cost: Free (registration essential)

Two ways to attend

join online via zoom

Attend from the comfort of your home. War widows across Australia are invited to join the webinar online. Once registered, you will receive a link to join us live.

Click here to register to attend online.

Join in person at the chatswood office

For those located near Sydney, we warmly invite you to join other war widows for a group viewing at the Families of Veterans Guild office in Chatswood. Afternoon tea will be served, and you’ll have the opportunity to watch the live webinar together.

Due to the size of our head office, numbers of in person participants will be capped and registration will close when capacity is reached with the possibility to go on a waitlist. Waitlisted participants will be contacted. Online participation will not be capped.

Please note: Registration is required for both online and in-person attendance.

Click here to register to attend in Chatswood.

About the Webinar

This webinar has been developed exclusively for war widows, to ensure that the information shared is relevant, accurate and respectful of your lived experience. You’ll hear from four DVA representatives, each covering a specific area of support and entitlements available to war widows.

After each presentation, you will have the chance to ask questions or share your thoughts during live Q&A sessions.

Meet the Panel

We are pleased to welcome the following DVA representatives:

Sharon Wardle – Income Support Branch, Client Benefits Division
Sharon will provide an overview of the income support available to eligible war widows.

Jonathan Levy – Director, Health Approvals, Payments, RAP and Transport
Jonathan will speak about transport entitlements.

Melanie Kilborn – Assistant Director of the Veterans’ Home Care and Contract Management Team
Melanie will explain how the Veterans’ Home Care program can help you remain safe and independent in your home.

Carolyn Lees – Community Nursing
Carolyn will outline the Community Nursing Program, designed to support eligible war widows with clinical care at home.

Hosted by

This session will be facilitated by Caroline Kirche, Communications & Events Manager at the Families of Veterans Guild. We are proud to present this opportunity to ensure that no war widow feels left behind when navigating their DVA entitlements.

Register Now

To attend the webinar online or in person, please register via the link below. Once registered, you will receive event details including the Zoom link or venue information for our Chatswood afternoon tea.

Click here to register to attend online.

Click here to register to attend in Chatswood.

The post Upcoming webinar: understanding DVA entitlements for war widows first appeared on Families of Veterans Guild.

Aged Care Bill 2024 update

Kelly Taylor — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 05:32:56 +0000

On 12 September 2024, the Federal Government introduced the Aged Care Bill 2024 to parliament. If passed and made law, the bill would have a start date of 1 July 2025. This summary is intended to help war widows and families of veterans who access or will likely access aged care services. The summary provides an overview of the key changes, and the impacts of these changes.

What’s the impact?

If passed, the bill will replace the numerous aged care laws currently in place and centralise the system into one piece of law. Importantly, the government have confirmed that no person who currently access aged care services will be left worse off, and they will be grand parented into the new system. This means that if you currently receive aged care services, or are assessed for needing aged care services before 1 July 2025, the quality of service and amounts you pay will stay the same or improve.

Additionally, the bill is ‘rights-based,’ meaning the rights of people receiving aged care services are defined, the obligations of aged care providers and workers are defined, and the penalties and enforcement of ensuring these obligations are met and rights upheld are administered by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.

Key changes

We know that a proportion of our members access the Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP) or Restorative Care, which both provide at home care and support with household tasks. The CHSP and Restorative Care will be combined to form the ‘Support at Home Program’ which centralises entitlements in one program, while also increasing the amount and type of entitlements provided. This change will not be fully implemented until 2027.
The lifetime contribution cap, meaning the maximum amount a person is expected to contribute to their care, is increasing from $80,000 to $130,000. This, like all other changes, does not impact people who are approved to receive aged care services before 1 July 2025.
People who receive aged care services and have entitlements through holding a DVA Gold or White Card will still be able to access those entitlements. The new bill does not limit or prevent DVA Gold or White Card holders from continuing to receive existing entitlements.

Why is this being done?

Aged care is one of the largest and fastest-growing areas of government spending, and the demand for aged care will keep increasing as the population ages. At the same time, both major political parties and the aged care sector agree that existing levels of funding have not been sufficient to deliver the quality-of-care Australians expect. Further, the government is seeking to address recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

DVA aged care experience survey

Are you, or a family member accessing home and residential aged care services? DVA has recently published a survey which seeks to understand the experiences one might have accessing both home and residential aged care services.

The Accessing Aged Care Support Services Survey seeks to understand your individual experience accessing Aged Care services and supports, how the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) can help, and ideas for improvement.

The results will help them better understand how clients make decisions, find information and the pain points they experience during the process. The survey can be completed by veterans and veteran family members or another person on their behalf and is voluntary and anonymous.

You can find the survey here on DVA’s website.

The post Aged Care Bill 2024 update first appeared on Families of Veterans Guild.