Permanent impairment is a medical measurement before it is a payment. This page walks the combined-points scale DVA uses under GARP M, marks the thresholds that change what you are entitled to, and shows the published periodical rates. It is a briefing, not a payout button and not a DVA offer.
The single most common misunderstanding. GARP M does not total the ratings for each condition — it combines them on a whole-person scale from 0 to 100, using the Combined Values Chart. Twenty points and twenty points do not make forty. Each additional condition contributes less than the one before, because the scale measures the whole person and a person cannot be more than 100% impaired.
The worked arithmetic is here: why 20 + 20 is not 40.
Most of the scale is a smooth gradient, but a few points on it change what you are entitled to rather than just how much you are paid:
Which is why an assessment that stops at "about fifty" is not good enough. The difference between 58 and 60 points is a card.
Whether the accepted conditions arose from warlike or non-warlike service, or from peacetime service, changes the compensation applied to the same impairment rating.
The lump sum conversion is age-adjusted. The same points are worth a different amount at 35 than at 65.
A separate GARP chapter rates the effect on your daily life, and it feeds into the calculation alongside the impairment points. How the lifestyle rating works.
A rating that is not grounded in the record does not survive review. The assessment starts with what is documented, not with a figure.
Every accepted condition is rated, then combined. Conditions left off the claim are worth zero points — which is why a chart review usually comes first.
Crossing 60 points changes what treatment is funded for the rest of your life. That is a clinical outcome, not an administrative one.
It does not tell you your number. Nobody can, from a web page. A rating requires examination, the record, and the GARP applied properly — that is a permanent impairment assessment, $1,500 + GST. If you want an indication before committing, a paper-based estimate is $600 + GST.
Free tools: the PI points calculator and the payout calculator.