Budget 2025-26 supports DVA to deliver services to the veteran community
The Australian Government handed down the 2025-26 Federal Budget on 25 March 2025.
The 2025–26 Budget builds on previous investments that have seen the demand for the Department’s services increase.
$47.6 million in 2025–26 has been provided to increase resourcing in key service delivery areas of the Department. This includes funding for up to 120 service delivery staff in the following areas:
- the Veteran Access Network
- Veteran Support Officers
- Complex Case Management teams
- Information Access teams, and
- mental health support teams.
A further $11.9 million in 2025-26 has been provided to support continued access to key health and support programs for veterans and families, including:
- extension of the Military and Veteran Psychiatry Training Program
- extension of the Veterans’ Chaplaincy Pilot Program
- supporting the delivery of the Veteran Employment Program
- extension of the Veterans – volunteer training in suicide recognition and intervention program
- supporting Invictus Australia
- supporting Kookaburra Kids.
This additional funding builds on significant investments into the Department via the 2024–25 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) process, which included $34.9 million to provide DVA with additional resourcing as well as funding to support the Department’s implementation of the Government’s response to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.
To find out more about the 2025–26 Budget measures, please visit the 2025–26 Budget page on the DVA website.
ED: This budget includes some positive steps in improving veteran services, particularly in mental health, case management, and employment support. However, will this funding be enough to address the backlog of claims and long wait times veterans currently face? Additional staff is welcome, but systemic issues within the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) require long-term structural reform, not just short-term budget increases. Veterans need streamlined, efficient services, not just more bureaucracy. Will these measures lead to tangible improvements for veterans, or are they just another
