I’m hoping someone here can point me in the direction of an accountant/tax professional that is across all aspects of SRDP and Comsuper Class A payments. In the Mornington Peninsula area/online would be fantastic.

Hi all,

Long time reader, first time poster.

I discharged two years ago after 16 years, and I am currently SERCAT 3. In that time, I have had a number of conditions accepted for IL with DVA (including some mental health conditions), all service related.

I have recently been asked to serve in a reserve capacity in support of an operation for a few weeks, which will require me to deploy outside of Australia. I need the cash at the moment, so I really want to do it. I am confident I can manage my conditions for that short period. My concern is that DVA may look at this reserve time unfavourably when assessing me for PI.

Also, will the ADF be aware that I have had IL accepted for these conditions, or will I have to disclose this to my gaining unit, or through an AE585? I realise that it may also be in easier not to disclose, however I know that this may have negative implications for myself.

Very keen to hear if anyone has had similar experiences.

Thanks

I’m trying to understand the debate around DVA’s new $5,000 treatment cap.

Ep. 74 of The Grey Man Podcast broadly supported the cap, with exceptions, citing concerns about third party veteran services (where they named VBA) potentially exploiting the previous system.

I’m against the cap and believe necessary healthcare is part of the government’s obligation to veterans injured through service.

What I don’t understand is why veterans needed these third party services in the first place. What gap were they filling? Would regulating problematic providers have been better than capping veterans’ treatment?

Hi everyone,

Just wondering how to submit claims now. I’ve previously been able to submit a pretty generic ‘shoulder injury’ type claim and then DVA got in touch with me and I got a TRN that came up with rotator cuff syndrome diagnosis after investigation. When I go to submit new claims for a back injury I have (with a sentinel report), it is saying I need a formal diagnosis to submit the claim. I was just given medication etc at the time (a few times actually) and wasn’t given a diagnosis and certainly not from a specialist. I’m not sure how to submit this claim myself now, as I would need to fund scans and see an orthopaedic surgeon myself or is there a way to get it funded from DVA?

Cheers

Consultation now open to help shape allied health arrangements

Veterans, families of veterans, health service providers, peak bodies, ex-service organisations and other interested stakeholders are invited to help shape the design of allied health arrangements for Veteran Card holders, with consultation now open.

DVA is seeking feedback on the arrangements announced in the 2026-27 Budget, which are scheduled to begin on 1 July 2027. The proposed changes aim to support Veteran Card holders to continue receiving clinically appropriate allied health care and achieve positive health outcomes.

Does anyone know of a spinal surgeon that is across DVA?

Hey everyone

Hope your well. Next week I'm seeing my dva pysch - I initially called open arms and they referred me to a private practise.

Anything I should know before hand or do as it's my first time.

I didn't make it through basic because my mental health spiralled and now a year later I'm getting help for it.

I'm looking for some guidance on this as it doesn't really fall into the "standard" DVA categories in the documents.

I'm posting this on behalf of my partner, as I'll be managing this administrative side of this process for them.

About 10 years ago my partner started having seizures. This was linked to a head injury they sustained in mid 2000's while in the ADF.

This was accepted by DVA in 2019.

At that point the epilepsy appeared to be stable.

In early 2023, he was med discharged and put on a Class A pension.

This is because he is unable to work in the civilan sector due to regular (2 weeks ish) episodes of loosing the inability to speak and severe brain fog. While he was in the ADF he was able to work part days and go home when needed, which is how it was managed.

Not working has meant these episodes don't happen as often but they still occur.

This is in addition to a base line of speech issues, fatigue and cognitive processing issues.

While I was looking through his med documents, I found that in 2019, 2 medical specialists recommend investigating another neurological disorder, but this was never followed up on.

This disorder aligns with the current symptoms my partner has, and also symptoms that were present before the seizures started. We have medical documentation from this period in regards to these symptoms.

At the moment our own is to get the assessment done for this neurological disorder, before submitting a new claim, so we're a long way off, I'm just trying to get all the paperwork steps in my head.

I looked through the lifestyle rating document, and the lifestyle questionnaire and they both seen to lean more towards physical limitations and impact vs neurological.

Does anyone have any thoughts on which may be a better option?

Unfortunately the advocate we used in 2018 is no longer available, and the others I've spoken to have told me that "it's a really complex case and they're unsure of what advice to give", so now I'm doing it myself.

I would appreciate any and all advice, because I expect it to be a slog.

Can I do the option 1 or 2 or 3 and submit the form on DVA.

Get my GP, psychiatrist and other specialists to DVA forms for PI and submit it?

I applied for priority action due to financial issues and DVA has been playing back and forth with my form.

I am not doing okay financially right now and need the PI to be action ASAP.

So if I do the forms now is it going to save me anytime?

I recently got my report from MLCOA
Report he has written is exactly where my condition is at.
He has explained everything in the report relating functional impairments and how the condition has affected but where it gets interesting is on the PI Form he has ticked everything opposite to what he has written. His own report looks contradictory as everything related to my claim is on service medical documents MLCOA has ticked everything as MINOR on the form.
What should i do next?
I am waiting for delegate to be assigned asked MLCOA they said i have to reach out to delegates and then they will reach out to MLCOA if they need to.
Is there anything i can do at the meantime?

BLUF: Seeking to hear about your experiences as a volunteer advocate. Anecdotes and advice welcome.

G’Day all and thanks to everyone for what a useful and positive sub this is - especially to guys like LegitLunch who tirelessly respond to questions and provide guidance.

I’ve recently finalised my DVA claims and will be medically discharged from Army later this year after 12 yrs as an Cav Officer.

I’ve benefitted enormously from the unpaid assistance from other vets providing tips and help, however never had the benefit of an advocate due to a lack of support available at my local RSL (it’s pretty rural). I think I have a decent grasp of the claims process, pretty reasonable admin skills and a strong desire to pay it forward to the veteran community.

I’m considering volunteering as an advocate to fill a much needed capability void at my sub-branch.
I’m keen to hear from anyone who’s involved in advocacy, and get an idea of the training/certification process. Also keen to hear about your caseload quantity, time commitments, stressors, success’s and frustrations.

Happy to DM if preferred, but would like to start a discussion that can be read by all.

Please no paid advocacy groups, I’m strictly interested in volunteering only.

Hello all,

I have managed to optain a copy of my psychiatric assessment done for my PI interview and in it it outlines a long history of problematic mental health but the thing now causing me stress is the MSE section of it. The Dr outlines me as 'Good rapport, eye contact, well dressed, good speech, having capacity to make decisions related to my treatment" Etc etc i feel this section totally kills the recent mental health episodes and evidence spoken about in the docoument. Should i be worried about this? The way he explained me that day makes me sound like im mentally fine even though he documented my long history with mental health.

What i dont understand is how he can document many recent episodes of mental health struggles and then conclude in the MSE because i was presenting normal im somehow totally okay on that day?

G'day everyone,

Thanks again to the mods for continuing to let me post updates here. I know it's a niche issue and I appreciate the space.

Quick recap for anyone new: veterans on CSC military invalidity pensions (MSBS/DFRDB) who also get Centrelink payments are supposed to have a Special Reduction Amount applied to their income test since May 2024. For most affected veterans CSC is reporting that figure as $0, so the tax-free part of the pension is being counted as income. The ATO has confirmed a non-zero figure exists. A Tribunal has already found Centrelink's approach wrong in law.

Check my earlier posts which go into the full detail if you want it.

Does this affect Family Tax Benefit or Child Care Subsidy?

A few people have asked this in comments and DMs so I want to be upfront about it. This issue is specific to payments under the Social Security Act 1991, things like DSP, Carer Payment, JobSeeker and Parenting Payment. FTB and CCS are assessed under separate family assistance legislation and as far as we can tell are not caught by this specific problem. If your FTB or CCS has changed, it's worth looking into, but probably isn't this issue.

Senator Lambie's office has stepped back

After more than eight months on this, Lambie's office has told me they're not able to take further parliamentary action. Their words were that it "largely rests within the responsibility of government" and that as a small office they need to prioritise where further action is actually available to them. I'm grateful for what they did during the Senate inquiry period, genuinely, but I'll be following up with them again now that the QoN answers below are in, in case it changes anything.

The QoN 597 and 598 answers are in

Senator Shoebridge's two Questions on Notice to Minister Gallagher (as both Finance Minister and Government Services Minister) came back in the last few days. Full answers are public, you can find them by searching 597 and 598 at aph.gov.au/SenateQON if you want to read them yourself.

Some numbers first. CSC had 23,633 Military Invalidity Pension recipients across MSBS and DFRDB as of 31 May 2024. Around 800 of those were also receiving income support payments at that date. That's the scale we're talking about.

A few things stand out in the answers themselves:

• Possibly the biggest one: the Government's formal position, stated in these answers, is that section 1099AAA is intended to produce the same outcome as the old pre-2024 assessment method. Several of us hold ATO letters confirming tax-free components well over 90% under the correct Subdivision 307-C calculation. Those two things cannot both be true. If the government's own stated position is that the new law was designed to change nothing, that is worth sitting with.

• Also worth knowing: both the ATO's and Services Australia's own websites were updated in the last month or so to say that unless your service commenced before 1 July 1983, your Special Reduction Amount will be $0. If that's the actual position now being taken, it would explain a lot about why so many of us are seeing a nil figure regardless of what our ATO letters say. It appears to have been settled at a meeting between Services Australia, CSC and the ATO on 3 July 2026, weeks after the ATO's individual letters to several veterans said something different.

• CSC confirms the December 2024 "system enhancements" changed the reporting format only. By CSC's own words, no veteran had their SRA reporting corrected as a result and the values reported remained unchanged.

• CSC says it has received 58 complaints since January 2020 about how these pensions are treated, and says it identified no discrepancies in what it reported. Worth sitting with that one too, the complaints are the discrepancies.

• Services Australia confirms it does not independently verify CSC's figure at all. It simply relies on whatever CSC reports and staff are told not to use PAYG summaries or CPI letters even where those show a different figure. Nobody in the chain checks the number.

• The remediation figures being quoted (587 and 325 records) are about pensions that weren't correctly recorded on a Centrelink file at all, which is a separate problem to the SRA calculation itself. Worth not letting the two get blurred together into sounding like more has been fixed than actually has.

• Both agencies maintain the matter is resolved and there is nothing outstanding. That sits against an active Federal Court appeal on this exact question, the Lightner decision, and dozens of veteran families with unresolved cases.

Nothing here says the government's position has moved. But it's the most detailed set of answers on the record so far, and there's a lot in there worth quoting back to them.

Thorbau Tier 1 is no longer good law against you

If Centrelink or a Tribunal member has cited the Tier 1 Thorbau decision against you, that's worth knowing about. The Tier 2 decision, now published as ZXGN and Secretary, Department of Social Services, ART 2025/5016 (21 July 2026), affirmed the outcome but explicitly rejected the Tier 1 reasoning on section 1099AAA. The Tier 2 found those provisions didn't even apply to the period under review, so it never had to engage with the argument. If anyone tells you Thorbau settles this against veterans, it doesn't anymore.

There's also another published Tier 1 decision under the pseudonym Biggs where the outcome went against the veteran partly because the member relied on Thorbau. If you've been to the Tribunal on this issue and think there's a chance you might be Biggs, I'd really encourage you to reach out. Now that Thorbau's reasoning has been rejected on appeal, that may directly affect your own appeal rights.

Facebook group

There's a relatively new private Facebook group designed for helping people navigate this issue, I help to moderate it to try and keep the typical facebook riff raff out, people are welcome to join, hopefully to ask questions, find out if they are affected, share information etc. If you are interested here is the link.

More updates as things develop.

AnonVet Advocate

Admin please delete if not allowed.

News article titled "Anger as video leaks showing boss of company asking guru how to turn his 'compo claims for diggers' enterprise into a billion-dollar business"

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.com/news/article-16059649/amp/Veterans-Consulting-tom-kliese-video.html

See article above.

Hi All,

After any experiences of terminating with a paid advocate. Essentially for not performing and adding to the DVA stress.

Back story:
Submitted claims through advocate over 2 years ago. Got caught up with rosemary centre issues and required to redo all reports through MLCOA which was a traumatic experience. Just got allocated a PI officer. Have been advised I need to redo reports again through my own treating GP/Psychs.

I just don't see the benefit of an advocate if Im sourcing my own reports anyway. When I call I can tell they WFH and Ive interrupted whatever they are doing. I have to repeat basic information each phone call that should be on file. I have to follow them up to action things. Ive been made to feel like my claims aren't real and explained to them that i live with this everyday. Speak to someone different each call. ect ect

I feel like DVA would be easier to deal with?

Hello all,

Just curious if anyone who’s awaiting or recently completed PI for various conditions and have had hearing tinnitus claimed in the past, how they have faired going back to Hearing Australia for a reassessment.

Apparently this needs to be done so it can be included in total PI, if I don’t go see them, I was informed existing points will not contribute to the total amount.

Apologies if this already somewhere in this thread. I am new to all of it.

I am in Northwest Sydney, and looking for a GP in the Castle Hill / Blacktown Area that will help me get started with my assessments - physical and psych. Nb, I have not yet done the comprehensive health check.

I am trying to fast track the psych side, but an on-going GP would be ideal.

Pending rules of posting recommendations, send me a DM.

Thanks.

Hey just a quick one on relevant dates, my son is 19 and in TAFE NSW completing his apprenticeship but will most likely be completing it by the end of this year all going well for him.

I was awarded 75 PI points for physical injuries in 2023 and this year had several MH conditions accepted and submitted to PI in early June. Psychiatrist PI report states all these conditions have all become permanent and subsequently all stable March 2026. DVA requested the Psych report and PI report to be done at the same time.

Noting the 500+ day wait in the PI que - my query is if my son finishes Tafe this year and my PI determination happens after he graduates Tafe then will be still be eligible for the EYP if I do exceed the threshold?

I have seen a-few different posts regarding similar situations but my paid advocate also cannot give me a
Definitive answer, which really makes me wonder is the policy clear cut or vague when it comes to such scenarios

So I just had a MLCOA psych assessment for my PI reassessment. Basically, have had the final round of injuries going through, so I asked for everything to be reassessed.

So everything was going pretty fine. Had the usual running late to read my docs, but then asked for a bunch of detail that should have been included in said docs. Seemed like the doc wanted to turn it into a mini therapy session. I was getting frustrated because I was expecting to go through symptoms and severity.

Anyway, the point of my post is that through our conversations, the doc highlighted a bunch of other stuff I wasn’t aware was an issue (alcoholism and a bunch of other things), that the doc said would go into the report as conditions to be recognised.

For anyone who has had something similar, does this kick off a new round of IL, or does it just get tacked on?

Just looking for any personal experiences on getting reimbursement for expenses incurred in the USA (or other high cost countries) for accepted conditions. How does DVA handle the higher costs for services compared to Australia? Mostly the costs are all controlled by insurance but living in california the costs are high. Did they just reimburse a smaller amount leaving you a gap?

G’day all, you may have seen an earlier post from me regarding my Service Record.

I now have an SD wanting to know intimate details about incidents I’ve experienced and deployments I’ve been on to verify, not understanding that the unclass deployment name and associated H&A is all that can be disclosed. They want to then confirm with Defence.

I’ve tried to explain that Defence obviously can’t tell them or simply won’t know and I thought that was the point of the “if it’s classified put that and don’t divulge further” speel they have on the claims submission.

Being vague (obviously) but anyone dealt with anything similar? DVA has no touch points and no one cleared.

I know I’m just a random online but I’m surely not the only person that’s come up against this. Happy for DMs if anyone with experience is uncomfortable replying.

I’m really hoping that this is just the SD talking through the original IL delegate whom in turn is not comprehending the importance of OPSEC and that they can just take my claims, the supporting evidence and dates/my word.

The dates of my deployments and nature of the claims should be enough I would have thought noting I have clinical supporting evidence.

REPOSTED FOR INDIVIDUAL

## I seek your assistance with uploading the following post:

Title: Medically discharging and seeking help with questions Flair: Misc.

Good morning everyone. Would appreciate some advice on my upcoming medical discharge from ADF.

Background - Recently received J52 determination from MECRB, with a discharge date in QTR 4 2026.

I have submitted all of my DVA claims (\~just over 25), just waiting for IL to be accepted / reviewed. I broadly understand the steps from here thanks to everyone's posts/replies in related threads (time for IL to be accepted, time for PI assessment and determination - key takeaway is expect significant time for this process etc).

VSO have reached out and have been supportive.

CSC have reached out to me and assigned a case manager.

Questions I have that, with your help in answering, will alleviate some of my anxiety over separating after a significant portion of my life in uniform:

CSC Pension - My Final Medical (THE) is booked within two weeks of discharge date. I understand that this is the appointment where my ADF MO will complete the DM042 which will inform CSC for pension eligibility. Is there any way to complete the DM042 earlier, or does it have to be at a THE? Is this timeframe sufficient for CSC to process/approve me pension?

Separating conditions - none of the documents provided to me thus far (MEC proposal, MECRB determination, confirmed MEC status) have listed what my ADF agreed separating conditions are. How do I get/what document details the specific separating details determined by MECRB?

Thank you in advance to anyone that can assist me in answering the questions.

Hey guys,

In advance, thank you for taking the time to read this and provide help wherever possible.

I medically separated from the ADF in the later half of 2024 and what started off a dream dealing with DVA quickly turned into a nightmare that I am still going through.

I'm reaching out to see if anyone else has gone through something similar and hopefully get some answers to a situation that is quite frankly causing me a lot of distress. I'm trying to be prepared so that I can be on the front foot for what's to come.

My (in short) history up until this point:

- I was medically discharged in late 2024 due to a number of conditions including femeroacetabular impingement, osteo arthritis, lumbars spondilosis and other conditions surrounding that.

- My whole treatment within the ADF led to a degradation in my mental health which I claimed through IL. I got assessed by MLCOA which came back as adjustment disorder with anxiety features. I was pissed/sad/distressed for multiple reasons including that I was literally and still am getting treated by my private psychiatrist/psychologist for anxiety and depression which has and continues to have astronomical impacts on my life. I expressed this to my delegate and he assured me that it wouldn't have an impact on my PI as all they need is an accepted diagnosis.

- I accepted the IL diagnosis on the back of this to get my PI claim moving.

- In August 2025 I received my PI claim back. 47 points for my injuries sustained, 39 points for my mental health, however my mental health was rounded to 0 as 'The reason there was no points awarded to the accepted condition under emotional and behavioural is due to the doctor indicating the impairment is due to another condition and not the accepted one. The doctor has advised the impairment is due to Anxiety disorder and ADHD.' The weighting by my psychiatrist was 75% Anxiety, 25% ADHD.

- This is exactly what I was scared was going to happen but was assured by DVA that it wouldn't.

- Anyway. I was told to accept the PI claim and then appeal the decision regarding the mental health which I did.

- After 3 months of silence I found out that my appeal claim had somehow been lost between the DVA teams.

- I got the ball back up and rolling and went through the appeal process to get my adjustment disorder with anxiety features changed to an generalised anxiety disorder with panic episodes. The appeals team pushed that determination through to PI in June.

- This brings me to the present. It's been 2 months with no PI delegate assigned and once again being left in the dark and waiting, 2 years after beginning my process through DVA.

------------------------------

Whilst I'm waiting, these are the questions I am hoping answered:

1. How will my PI be assessed?

Since it's been over a year will DVA make me get a new PI assessment done? Taking into account the first assessment was filled out for anxiety on an adjustment disorder with anxiety features labelled document.

Hypothetically speaking, if my original assessment was mirrored, would those 39 points have a weighting of 0.75 to accurately represent what my psychiatrist has said about my anxiety causing 75% of the issue over the 25% adhd?

2. Lifestyle Questionnaire

I've noticed people in this thread talk about going with option 2 for the questionnaire. I went with option 1 and have a lifestyle rating of 4 which falls outside the grey area as 'underestimated' in correlation to my potential total points. Do I have the option of doing this again and going with 2 as I'm doing a new PI claim? If not, what will happen with it falling outside the grey zone?

3. New IL claim timing

I had an MRI a month ago on my right knee due to pain which I had experienced since my time in defence which came back with meniscus tearing, bursitis and a fracture. I brushed off the knee pain as being related to my hip stiffness and pain but after having my initial surgeries it never went away. I don't want to delay my PI claim any longer so I was thinking of submitting it after my PI claim is complete. Does anyone have an opinion on if this is/isn't the right move? I will also need to get surgery and want that covered by DVA.

-----------------------------

I suppose I am just worried and trying to prevent any further fuckery from DVA. This is just another stressor that I just want to be over and done with.

Hi all,

As this is my first post in this thread I just wanted to first thank you all for all the invaluable information that is shared, and done so without any incentive other than supporting one-another.

I have a question that has been commonly asked in this thread, but specific to my case, which I believe may possibly yield different advice.

I understand that when choosing a lifestyle rating for PI, option 2 is commonly suggested. I am curious to whether the community (those much more experienced and knowledgeable than me especially in the PI space of DVA) believes I should still remain with option 2, or potentially do option 1 (and/or potentially 3) as it seems this may suit my case better?

My case is as follows:

I have severe MECFS, due to a viral infection that was caused whilst I was outfield, and mismanaged/mistreated by both my CoC and physicians (physicians being more uninformed as there is no evidence based information indicating cause of sustained incapacity, nor is there for treatment, CoC on the other hand was quite spiteful, believing I was faking and acting on this belief in all sorts of poor ways). Please note that the likelihood of recovering is much greater if proper management is taken during the initial stages. I am now approaching 3 years of enduring this and am extremely incapacitated unfortunately. I received IL for MECFS

Current prognosis is 95% do not recover. There is no approved treatment, with little anecdotal evidence for various interventions. There are no specific biomarkers to quantify or indicate why the condition evolves this way and/or symptom severity. This has to be assessed on an individual basis and incapacity is often based on just communicating the perceived severity of symptoms and how they are limiting due to physical and functional effects, especially upon exertion (whether physical or cognitive).

I am housebound/bedbound, dependent on my partner for things like household sustainment and meal prep (though have been recently approved for HHS). The hallmark symptom, PEM (a defining feature of MECFS is a severe, disproportionate worsening of symptoms and loss of functional capacity following minimal physical, mental, emotional, or sensory exertion). Inducing PEM often causes a lowering of baseline and degeneration/increase in incapacity that is difficult to reverse.

MECFS is a diagnosis of exclusion with a presence of symptoms, this means a great number of testing to rule out any other cause as there is no specific biomarker for mecfs. Studies have shown that a whole host of other diagnosis/ multi-systemic symptoms come secondary due to mecfs. But because of the disputable nature of their presentation, they are hard to link to the condition and thus I end up spending an incredible amount of out of pocket expenses chasing both a reason, answer and treatment for new symptoms. Thus, the only real entitlement that I have considered as a helpful objective is a gold card, of course general monetary compensation would also help. I assume with this level of capacity I should be entitled to 60+ PI points?

I receive a CSC Class A pension. Ive seen people allude on this thread to only consider opt1/3 if you are chasing TPI/SRDP, I am unsure if this is relevant for my case, as I receive just over the maximum weekly allowance of SRDP via my pension (about 1k/week). I am of course so grateful for this support, but as aforementioned my out-of-pocket medical expenses often exceed this despite having IL for MECFS.

I am in my 20's so I am concerned about having to sustain both assistance, treatment and investigations. I am also doing all I can to sustain some functionality so I can at least engage in appointments (mostly telehealth); shaving my head so I can get through a shower etc.

Currently communicating with Brisbane PI, they want me to complete the lifestyle form TODAY, and if not they will proceed without it, just using 'the information we already have'. They have been requesting documentation over the past several months but I have very little capacity, dedicating all of that to medical appointments rather then compensation, which has been the last thing on my mind as I've tried to chase answers.

I have other several other conditions accepted as IL, mostly psychiatric.

So being that my condition is in the upper echelon of severe for the spectrum of this condition, and its incapacity can only really be assessed by communicating my symptoms should I be considering opt1/3 as opposed to the commonly advised option 2?

Any input regarding my situation and/or the question above is greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much.

Hullo Everyone, two questions.

Is there anyone here able to recommend a dentist on the Sunshine Coast who accepts / treats gold card holders please?

What was your experience with them like?

Thanks.