How MRCA permanent impairment compensation is calculated

The four steps

1. Whole person impairment is assessed. Every accepted condition is rated against the correct GARP M table and the results are combined into a single impairment points figure between 0 and 100.
2. Lifestyle effect is rated. Separately, the effect of the accepted conditions on your lifestyle is rated from 0 to 7 using Chapter 22 of GARP M.
3. A compensation factor is found. Chapter 23 of GARP M contains the table that converts your combined impairment points and lifestyle rating into a compensation factor.
4. The factor is applied to the maximum rate. That factor is multiplied by the current maximum MRCA periodic payment to produce your gross weekly payment.

The current numbers

DVA publishes these rates and updates them periodically. As at the rates current from 1 July 2026:

• Maximum weekly permanent impairment benefit — $447.39. This is the ceiling the compensation factor is applied to.
• Additional payment for severely impaired veterans with eligible dependants — $115,175.42.
• Threshold — 10 impairment points for an initial payment, or 5 points where the impairment relates to hearing loss, loss or loss of use of a finger or toe, or loss of taste or smell.

Payments may be taken as a weekly amount or converted to a lump sum, and the lump sum conversion is calculated according to your age — younger veterans receive a larger lump sum for the same weekly entitlement, because it is being paid out over a longer expected period.

The calculator, and what it can honestly tell you

You will find payout calculators on other websites that promise to tell you what you will receive. Ours is here, and it is built from the actual compensation factor tables in Chapter 23 of GARP M 2026 rather than an approximation — enter an impairment rating and a lifestyle rating and it shows you the factor it used, which table it came from, and the arithmetic.

What it cannot do is invent your inputs, and that is the part worth understanding before trusting any calculator. Impairment points come from measured clinical findings rated against the correct table for each condition and combined through the Combined Values Chart. The lifestyle rating comes from a structured assessment of the effect on your function. Neither is something a veteran can accurately estimate about themselves. A figure produced from guesses at both is not an estimate — it is a number that happens to have a dollar sign in front of it.

So use it to understand the mechanism, and to see what a few extra impairment points are actually worth. Do not use it to decide whether an offer is fair — for that the rating itself has to be right, which is the whole point of a permanent impairment assessment.

One thing it will not give you is a lump sum. Converting a weekly payment to a lump sum uses age-based actuarial tables under Chapter 24, so any site producing a lump sum from impairment points alone is guessing at your age as well as your rating.

What you can usefully do in advance is estimate how your conditions combine — see the GARP impairment estimator — and understand that every accepted condition raises the combined figure.

What actually drives the number

The number of accepted conditions. This is the single largest controllable factor. Impairment combines rather than adds, but each additional accepted condition still moves the combined figure up, and veterans routinely claim a fraction of what their records support.

Whether each condition is rated against the right table. Using the wrong GARP table, or rating a condition before it is permanent and stable, produces a lower number that then stands.

Whether the lifestyle effect is documented. The lifestyle rating is a genuine input into the compensation factor, and it is frequently under-recorded because nobody asked the right questions.

Whether the assessment survives review. A rating that a DVA medical adviser queries and reduces costs you the difference permanently. That is why our impairment assessments come with a full written report showing the working behind every point.

Rates shown are DVA's published MRCA rates current from 1 July 2026 and change periodically — confirm the current figures at dva.gov.au. This page is general information, not legal or financial advice.