Look in MyService before you lodge
Decision letters, some medical reports, and claim status are often already in MyService. Asking Information Access for a letter you can download tonight wastes a month. Screenshot what you already have, then ask for what is missing: file notes, internal emails, call recordings, position numbers, the papers behind a SPOC.
PIR or FOI?
- Your own claim file, payments history, records of contact, impairment reports — start with PIR if you only need the documents quickly. DVA says no fees, aim 30 days, and no statement of reasons. If what comes back is thin, lodge FOI. PIR itself cannot be taken to the OAIC.
- You need review rights, call recordings, names and position numbers, SPOC/behaviour papers, or you already tried PIR — lodge FOI. Your own personal information under FOI is also free of charges.
- Policy, expedition criteria, how a team decides offsets — that is often non-personal FOI. Check CLIK and the FOI disclosure log first. Non-personal FOI can attract processing charges. DVA must quote an estimate before they bill you.
Ask for named things, not “everything”
- The complete claim file for listed claim numbers, including file notes, emails, attachments, and briefs, for a date range.
- Call recordings and metadata for calls involving your number in that range.
- Names and position numbers of officers who actioned those files in that range.
- Any SPOC, communication plan, challenging-behaviour or mutually respectful behaviour protocol that applies to you, and the documents considered.
- Internal advice about offsets, ASP, expedition, or a specific decision — expecting some s 47C / 47E redactions.
A scoped request is faster and more usable. “All documents DVA has ever held about me” is how you get a 12-month consultation and a folder you cannot read.
How to lodge
Step 1
Proof of identity
DVA will not release your personal information without it. The FOI and PIR webforms collect identity and consent up front. If you email or post, complete form D8601 (Information Access Application) and attach copies of ID as the form asks. An advocate or family member needs your consent on file, or legal authority if the veteran has died.
Step 2
Send it three ways if you want a paper trail
Webform is what DVA calls easiest. Also email the same scope to Information.Access@dva.gov.au so you have a sent item. Keep a copy of what you submitted. Phone 1800 VETERAN (1800 838 372) if you need the Information Access team — it does not replace the written request.
Step 3
Diary the clock
FOI: acknowledgement within 14 days; decision within 30 days unless they notify an extension (you agree, the request is large, or they must consult third parties). PIR: DVA aims to finish within 30 days and will contact you if the scope is unclear. If they go quiet, chase once in writing, then internal review / OAIC on the FOI, not on the PIR.
Charges (only some FOI)
No application fee. Your own personal information — FOI or PIR — is not charged. Other FOI requests may be. DVA’s published processing rates (as at the October 2025 FOI page): search and retrieval $15/hour; decision-making free for the first five hours then $20/hour; photocopying 10c/page. If they intend to charge, they must write with an estimate and a deposit before processing. You can contend the charge. Check the live DVA FOI page — do not treat those dollar figures as frozen.
If they refuse, delay, or over-redact
- 1Internal review — email Information Access and ask another officer to remake the FOI decision. DVA and the OAIC treat this as the faster first step. Agencies have 30 days to decide an internal review.
- 2Information Commissioner review (OAIC) — no fee. OAIC’s published limits: 60 days after written notice of an access refusal or a charge decision; 30 days after an internal review decision. The decision letter is the clock. Apply on the OAIC site. Deemed refusal (no decision in time) can also go to the OAIC.
- 3PIR has no OAIC review. If the PIR release is inadequate, lodge FOI for the same documents so the statutory rights attach.
Wrong personal information on the file can be corrected under the Privacy Act (APP 13). That is a separate ask: what is wrong, what it should say, and the evidence. It is not a VRB appeal.