There are three different DVA programs that look like “someone to help at home”. Mixing them up is how claims stall. Household services and attendant care are compensation, tied to accepted conditions. Veterans’ Home Care is a card-holder program, tied to functional limitation. Acute Support Package is short-term crisis support. Ask for the one that matches the need.
The three programs, in one screen
- Household services (HHS) — compensation for routine domestic tasks you can no longer manage because of an accepted service-related injury or condition. Cleaning, laundry, ironing, shopping, meal preparation, lawn mowing, gardening, window and gutter cleaning. Official page also lists childcare in some short-term and crisis circumstances. Form D9319 to hhs@dva.gov.au. Weekly statutory cap.
- Attendant care — compensation for regular, essential personal care you can no longer do: bathing, toileting, grooming, dressing, feeding. Not nursing, not medical care. Form D1351 (your medical provider completes part of it) to the same mailbox. Separate weekly cap from HHS — CLIK says the two limits are mutually exclusive, so you can have both if the assessments support both.
- Veterans’ Home Care (VHC) — Domestic Assistance, Home and Garden Maintenance, Personal Care, and respite for Gold Card or White Card holders who live at home and have functional limitation. Phone 1300 550 450. Not the same test as HHS. Co-payments and service limits apply. Respite is only through VHC.
Who can claim household services after 1 July 2026
DVA’s published test (household services page, updated 10 August 2026) is: you are unable to manage household tasks because of your accepted service-related injury or condition; and you are assessed as having a reasonable requirement for household services. New claims lodged on or after 1 July 2026 are determined under the improved MRCA, regardless of when or where you served, when the injury occurred, or which Act first accepted the condition.
- MRCA veterans — no change to the pathway. Still HHS.
- DRCA veterans — existing approvals continue until the renewal date on the determination letter, then the review is under MRCA. If you are already at the lower DRCA weekly cap and your needs have not dropped, you can ask DVA about moving to MRCA before that date for the higher cap.
- VEA veterans — this is the change most people have missed. From 1 July 2026 you can lodge HHS and attendant care on the strength of VEA-accepted conditions. You could not, for compensation purposes, before that date.
- You do not need a Gold Card for HHS. You need accepted conditions and a reasonable requirement.
- You generally need to be living at home (attendant care says so expressly; HHS is written as help at home).
What usually gets paid — and what DVA refuses
Official common services: cleaning, shopping, laundry, ironing, lawn mowing, gardening, meal preparation, and childcare in some short-term and crisis care circumstances. Support can be short (recovery from surgery) or ongoing if the condition is lasting. DVA can reimburse you or pay the provider directly. Nursing and clinical care are out — that is Community Nursing, not HHS.
- Cleaning and laundry are the usual approvals. Match each task to the accepted condition that stops you doing it (pain, range, fatigue, psychiatric function, cognitive load). “The house is a mess” is not a criterion.
- Outdoor work is the usual fight. If lawns or gutters are refused, the two stock reasons are “not caused by the accepted condition” and “someone in the house can do it”. Answer both in the form and on the assessment day.
- DVA’s general rule is that family cannot be paid to provide household services. Attendant care policy also asks whether it is reasonable for a household member to help unpaid. If you live alone, say so. If your partner works full-time, is unwell, or is already doing attendant-level care, put that in writing. Do not invent a household that does not exist.
- Ongoing childcare is still usually a bad fit for attendant care (attendant care is your personal care, not the child’s). Official HHS wording now allows childcare in some short-term and crisis circumstances. If the real need is children during a family crisis, Acute Support Package is still the purpose-built track — split the requests rather than dressing one up as the other.
- Once-off items (bond cleans, extra hours after a move, equipment) need their own request. A weekly cleaning approval does not imply them.
Weekly caps (check the live page — they index on 1 July)
HHS and attendant care are each capped at a legislated weekly maximum. Delegates cannot go over it. The two caps are separate. DVA’s MRCA compensation payment rates, current 20 September 2026 to 31 December 2026 (page last updated 11 September 2026; this site last checked 19 October 2026). Confirm before you quote them in a letter.
- Household services, MRCA (all new claims from 1 July 2026): $633.47 a week from 20 September 2026.
- Attendant care, MRCA: $633.47 a week from 20 September 2026 — same source, same date range. The two caps are separate. You can have both if the assessments support both.
- Household services, DRCA (existing determinations until reviewed): previously published $609.74 a week from 1 July 2026. Confirm on the live DRCA rates page — this site quotes the MRCA page as the single source for new claims.
- Published standard maximum hourly rate for household services: $79.90 an hour inclusive of GST for the 2026 calendar year — check the live page before you quote it.
How to lodge
Step 1
Get a Confirmation of Accepted Conditions letter if you do not have one
You need the diagnoses DVA has actually accepted, not the ones you have claimed. Call 1800 VETERAN or pull it from MyService. The assessment will be written against those conditions.
Step 2
List tasks against conditions before you touch the form
One line per task: what you used to do, what you can do now, which accepted condition stops you, how often it needs doing, whether anyone in the house can reasonably do it unpaid. This is the claim. The form just carries it.
Step 3
Complete D9319 (HHS) and/or D1351 (attendant care)
D1351 needs your medical provider to complete part of the form. Email the form and your task list to hhs@dva.gov.au, or post to GPO Box 9998, Brisbane QLD 4001. Keep a copy. Use the household-services letter as a cover note so the request exists in prose, not only in boxes.
Step 4
Treat the assessment like a specialist appointment
If DVA accepts the claim for investigation they send an assessor — usually an occupational therapist. The report is what the delegate uses. Have your partner or support person there if they see the bad days. Give the assessor the written task list first. Do not “tough it out” on the day.
Step 5
FOI the assessment if the hours look thin
You will live with those hours until the next review. If the report understates function, you need the document, not a memory of the visit.
Reviews, moves, and deterioration
- Approvals are reviewed. Standard HHS periods are often years; short-term approvals are often months. The end date is on the determination letter. Diary it. A lapsed approval is a gap in cleaning, not a reminder from DVA.
- If you move house, or the condition worsens, ask for a review. The old hours were written for the old house and the old function.
- Tell DVA if the help you need changes. Do not wait for them to notice.
- If a determination is wrong — hours too low, outdoor work refused on a bad reason, VEA conditions ignored after 1 July 2026 — read the review rights on the letter. Household services and attendant care determinations can be reviewable. Diary the date. VRB is the usual first external step for MRCA compensation decisions; check the letter rather than assuming.
What DVA will say against you
- “A household member can do it.” Answer with who lives there, their work and health, and what they already do. If you live alone, that sentence ends.
- “Not related to the accepted condition.” Point to the confirmation letter and the functional limit (cannot bend, cannot grip, cannot sustain attention, cannot leave the house on a bad day). A new unaccepted condition will not carry HHS.
- “You managed until now.” Function changes. A recent specialist or GP note that you can no longer do the task is better than a speech about pride.
- “Use VHC instead.” VHC may be enough. It may also be a fraction of the hours HHS would fund. Ask for the comparison. Do not let a call-centre preference substitute for a determination.
- “Family already cleans.” Unpaid family labour is not a reason the statutory test fails if you still have a reasonable requirement. It is a reason they will try. Put the unpaid load in the file so a later review or VRB can see it.
If the house is already failing and there is a new crisis (separation, hospital, children), lodge HHS and call 1800 VETERAN for Acute Support Package the same week. They are not substitutes. Invoices you pay while DVA sits on a lodged HHS claim are later CDDA exhibits if the handling is defective — they are not a reason to skip the claim.