What's Inside the GARP: A Chapter-by-Chapter Map of GARP M 2026

The GARP is around 250 pages of tables. It is not written to be read front to back, and almost nobody does. But knowing its shape tells you exactly where your own conditions are dealt with — and that is useful whether you are preparing for an assessment or trying to work out how a decision was reached.

This is the second article in our series. The first covered what the GARP is and where its authority comes from. This one maps every chapter. Detailed chapter-by-chapter articles follow.

The overall structure

After an Introduction and a "How to use this Guide" section, GARP M 2026 divides into four blocks:

Medical Impairment, Part A — System Specific Assessment (Chapters 1–12). One chapter per body system. This is where most conditions are rated.
Medical Impairment, Part B — Non-System Specific Assessment (Chapters 13–17). For impairment that does not sit neatly in one system.
Part C — Combining, Apportioning, Partially Contributing (Chapters 18–21). The arithmetic that turns many ratings into one.
Lifestyle Effects and Compensation (Chapters 22–26). Converting impairment into money.

Part A: System-specific assessment

Chapter 1 — Cardiorespiratory impairment

Conditions affecting the function of the heart or lungs, and usually also the thorax, diaphragm, the nerves supplying the muscles of respiration, and conditions such as anaemia. Impairment is generally measured by exercise tolerance, quantified in METs; where there is a respiratory component, lung function measurements such as FEV1, FVC and MEF 25–75 are used. Predominantly intermittent conditions go to Chapter 15 instead.

Chapter 2 — Hypertension and non-cardiac vascular conditions

Three parts: hypertension; vascular conditions of the lower limbs; and other non-cardiac vascular conditions. Aortic aneurysm and varicose veins are assessed here rather than under Chapter 1.

Chapter 3 — Impairment of spine and limbs

The largest chapter, and the one most veterans meet. Six parts: upper limbs, lower limbs, spine, resting joint pain, ranges of joint movement, and spine and limbs age adjustment. If you have accepted lumbar, cervical, shoulder, knee, ankle or foot conditions, this is your chapter — and the presence of a dedicated age-adjustment part is worth knowing about before an assessment.

Chapter 4 — Emotional and behavioural

The mental health chapter: PTSD, depressive and anxiety disorders, alcohol use disorder and the rest. Assessed on function rather than on diagnosis, which is why the detail of how you actually live matters more here than almost anywhere else in the Guide.

Chapter 5 — Neurological impairment

Conditions of the central and peripheral nervous system, including the residual effects of traumatic brain injury.

Chapter 6 — Gastrointestinal impairment

Two parts: diseases of the digestive system, and abdominal wall hernias and obesity. Reflux, irritable bowel and the gastrointestinal consequences of long-term medication are dealt with here.

Chapter 7 — Ear, nose and throat impairment

Two parts, and the first is a large one: hearing loss and tinnitus, then general ear, nose and throat. Given how common accepted hearing loss and tinnitus are among veterans, Part 7.1 is one of the most frequently applied sections in the entire Guide.

Chapter 8 — Visual impairment

Impairment of visual function, and other ocular impairment.

Chapter 9 — Renal and urinary tract function

Renal function, and lower urinary tract function.

Chapter 10 — Sexual function, reproduction and breasts

Three parts covering sexual function, reproduction, and breasts. Frequently under-claimed, often because it is not raised — including where the impairment is a side effect of medication for an accepted condition.

Chapter 11 — Skin impairment

Skin conditions, including the long-term consequences of sun exposure during service.

Chapter 12 — Endocrine and haemopoietic impairment

Two parts: the endocrine system, and the haemopoietic system.

Part B: Non-system-specific assessment

Chapter 13 — Negligible impairment

Every accepted condition must be assessed, including those causing effectively nothing. Chapter 13 provides a table for rating a condition that causes negligible impairment — an infection or injury recovered from with negligible after-effects, or a condition causing no current impairment. It applies only where the condition cannot conveniently be classified elsewhere and would not attract a higher rating if it were. No age adjustment is permitted.

Chapter 14 — Malignant conditions

Cancers, which need their own approach because impairment varies with treatment stage and prognosis rather than with a fixed functional deficit.

Chapter 15 — Intermittent impairment

For conditions that come in attacks — migraine, epilepsy, asthma, some gastrointestinal conditions. A nine-step process that establishes which body systems are affected, rates the functional impairment during an attack, groups attacks by type, then rates severity, duration and the number of affected days per year. If your condition is episodic, the frequency and duration of episodes is the evidence that matters, which is an argument for keeping a diary long before the assessment.

Chapter 16 — Activities of daily living

Grades six activities — movement in bed, transfers, locomotion, dressing, personal hygiene and feeding — adds the grading codes, converts the total to a functional impairment rating, separately determines an Other Impairment rating, and takes the higher of the two.

Chapter 17 — Disfigurement and social impairment

Scarring, disfigurement and the social consequences that follow from it.

Part C: Combining, apportioning, partially contributing

Chapter 18 — Combined Values Chart

Turns every individual rating into a single combined impairment rating. Explicitly not by addition — each successive condition is applied to the portion of the whole person still remaining. This is the chapter that explains why 60 plus 30 comes to 72.

Chapter 19 — Partially contributing impairment

For when an accepted condition is only part of the reason for a measured impairment. Establishes the relative contribution of the accepted condition and produces the rating attributable to it alone. This is where a claim can quietly lose most of its value if the evidence does not clearly separate service-related contribution from everything else.

Chapter 20 — Apportionment

The Guide's rule is that where a condition can be rated on both a functional loss table and an Other Impairment table, only the higher applies. Chapter 20 handles the harder case: two accepted conditions producing one measured functional impairment. Its own example is ischaemic heart disease and chronic bronchitis producing a combined functional rating of 20, where the individual Other Impairment ratings are 10 and 5. Without apportionment the smaller ratings would simply be discarded — which, as the Guide notes, would sometimes disadvantage the person. Apportionment separates the contributions so they can be compared properly.

Chapter 21 — Paired organs policy

How to handle paired organs — eyes, ears, kidneys, limbs — where one is affected by an accepted condition and the other is not.

Lifestyle effects and compensation

Chapter 22 — Lifestyle effects

The second of the two elements. A lifestyle effect is defined as a disadvantage, resulting from an accepted condition, that limits or prevents the fulfilment of a role that is normal for a person of the same age without the condition. Note the comparator: not your peers generally, and not you before service — a person of your age without the condition. The chapter also sets out a specific method for allocating a lifestyle rating when calculating an interim impairment payment under subsection 75(2), and optional methods once all conditions have stabilised.

Chapter 23 — Calculating permanent impairment compensation

Where impairment points and lifestyle rating become a weekly figure. Table 1 is for warlike and non-warlike service; Table 2 is for peacetime service, with a premium built into the first. The differential narrows above 50 impairment points, and at 80 points or more the compensation is the same regardless of service type — that rating already pays the maximum weekly amount, and no lifestyle rating needs to be calculated at all. Impairment is not rounded; lifestyle effect is rounded to the nearest integer.

Chapter 24 — Converting weekly sums into lump sums

The conversion, using tables provided by the Australian Government Actuary. This is the choice between a weekly payment and a lump sum, and it is age-dependent.

Chapter 25 — Old VEA and old DRCA accepted conditions

The offsetting method for a person who has an accepted condition under the VEA or DRCA as well as MRCA entitlements, so the same impairment is not paid for twice across schemes.

Chapter 26 — Calculating baseline impairment ratings

Establishes baseline ratings and sorts claimants into cohorts according to whether compensation was received under a claim made before or after 1 July 2026 and whether they hold old DRCA or old VEA accepted conditions. If you have a long history across more than one scheme, this chapter and Chapter 25 are the ones that determine what a new claim actually adds.

Where your conditions probably sit

For most veterans the picture is simple. Musculoskeletal conditions go to Chapter 3. Mental health goes to Chapter 4. Hearing loss and tinnitus go to Part 7.1. Reflux and bowel conditions go to Chapter 6. Sleep apnoea and respiratory conditions go to Chapter 1. Migraine goes to Chapter 15. Everything then passes through Chapter 18 to be combined, and through Chapters 22 and 23 to become a number.

The chapters people forget are the ones that quietly cost them: Chapter 10, because nobody raises it; Chapter 15, because episodic conditions look minor at a single appointment; and Chapter 19, because a report that does not separate the service contribution from everything else invites the smallest defensible figure.

Frequently asked questions

How many chapters does the GARP have?

Twenty-six, plus an Introduction and a "How to use this Guide" section, arranged in four parts.

Which chapter covers back and neck conditions?

Chapter 3, Impairment of Spine and Limbs — specifically Part 3.3 for spine. Chapter 3 also contains parts on resting joint pain, ranges of joint movement, and age adjustment.

Which chapter covers PTSD?

Chapter 4, Emotional and Behavioural. It rates on function rather than on diagnosis.

Which chapter covers hearing loss and tinnitus?

Chapter 7, Part 7.1.

What is the difference between Chapter 19 and Chapter 20?

Chapter 19 deals with one impairment only partly caused by an accepted condition, and works out the share attributable to it. Chapter 20 deals with two or more accepted conditions producing a single measured functional impairment, and separates their contributions so smaller ratings are not simply discarded.

Do I need to read the GARP myself?

No — but knowing which chapter your conditions fall under tells you what evidence the tables are going to ask for, which is the difference between an assessment that captures your impairment and one that misses half of it.

Next in this series

From here we work through the chapters in detail, starting with Chapter 1. If there is a chapter you want covered first, tell us and we will move it up the queue.

Talk to us

If you have a permanent impairment assessment coming up, call 0429 146 039 or email reception@vhc.org.au to talk it through with a doctor who applies this Guide every week.