Personal Law: Veterans - Guides
Veterans
10. Widow(er) Pension
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Last updated: 27 Aug 2015
- This pension specifically compensates widows, widowers and any dependent children of veterans who have died as a result of their Australian Defence Force (ADF) service. Other income generally does not affect these pensions however the receipt of other compensation payments may.
- In order to be eligible for this pension you must be a widow, widower or dependent child.
- You are an eligible widow or widower if you were married to or were in a de facto relationship with an Australian veteran immediately before their death. You will not be eligible if you have remarried, married or entered into a de facto relationship with someone else since that time.
- You are a dependent child if you are the natural or adopted child of a veteran or a child who was wholly or substantially dependent on the veteran. To be eligible you must be under 16 or under 25 years if you are undertaking full-time studies.
- It should be noted that if a child is being paid Commonwealth educational assistance such as youth allowance or ABSTUDY they might not be entitled to the orphan's allowance. This is to avoid double dipping.
- In certain circumstances a pension may be granted to a dependent automatically regardless of whether the veteran’s death was service-related. This might occur where the veteran was an ex-prisoner of war or was receiving the extreme disablement adjustment for example. This is a rare exception. In all other cases you must lodge a claim with the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) before this pension will be granted. It will only be paid to an eligible widow, widower or dependent child once the DVA have accepted that a veteran's death was service-related.
- If you are eligible and lodge your claim for the pension within 6 months of the veteran's death then the pension can be backdated to the day after that death. If the claim is lodged more than 6 months from the death then payments are backdated only 3 months.
- If you believe you are eligible you can lodge a claim by completing and lodging the relevant forms. The forms can be obtained from your nearest DVA office or from the DVA website at http://www.dva.gov.au/dvaforms.
- As part of the application process you must explain why you believe the veteran’s death was service-related. You will usually need to provide details of the doctors and hospitals where the veteran received treatment. A copy of the veteran’s death certificate should also be provided if possible.
- As a recipient of this pension there are a range of additional supplements that may be available to you.
- Recipients of the war widow or widower's pension and orphan’s pension are issued with a gold repatriation health card (gold card) which entitles the cardholder to a range of health services for all conditions.
- The Income Support Supplement (ISS) may be available to those with particularly limited means.
- The clean energy supplement that provides assistance to help individuals meet the cost of the carbon price may also be available.
- Various other concessions relating to costs of public and private transport services and public utilities can be available in certain circumstances.
- A one-off non-taxable bereavement payment designed to help with costs incurred upon the death of a pensioner and a funeral benefit may also be payable.
- Dependent children may be entitled to financial assistance and counselling from the Veterans’ Children Education Scheme (VCES) which provides student support services, guidance, counselling and financial assistance for eligible children.
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