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Media Release: Grants Open for our Veteran Community
The 2021-22 rounds of the Veteran and Community Grants and Supporting Younger Veterans Grants are now open for applications.
Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Personnel Andrew Gee said the grants deliver valuable funding to local community organisations providing activities and services that support the wellbeing of veterans and their families.
“Recent grant funding has gone to a wide variety of support programs including wellness weekends and care packages for Defence members, fishing and sporting activities and even off-road racing,” Minister Gee said.
“I recently had the opportunity to catch some waves with veterans from previous grant recipient, the Veteran Surf Project at Gerroa in New South Wales, and saw firsthand the truly remarkable positive impact it’s having for local veterans.
“Their program brings veterans together, gets them talking, gets them active and gives them something to look forward to each week. It can be literally life changing for some of those who participate.
“With this latest round of funding, I hope we can support many more groups like this.
“We want to see applications for practical projects and activities that support safe, accessible environments for veterans and their families to enable social connections and improve wellbeing.
“These grants will help improve and expand existing services, build capacity for future projects, and raise awareness of the issues facing local veterans.
“I meet regularly with many ex-service organisations and have enormous respect for the critical role they play in providing mateship, advocacy and support.”
Grants of up to $50,000 are available for local, community-based projects and activities. A small number of grants of up to $150,000 are also available for projects that deliver wellbeing support services and activities of broad scale benefit to the veteran community.
The Australian Government is investing $32 million this financial year alone in grant programs to help the many groups that provide complementary services to our veterans.
The 2021-22 grants rounds are now open online through the Community Grants Hub and close 20 January 2022. For information about how to apply for grants online, see the Community Grants Hub website: www.communitygrants.gov.au.
Changes to Defence Force Income Support Allowance (DFISA)
New legislation which came into effect on 1 January 2022 will provide an increase in social security payments for some veterans.
The changes made the Disability Compensation Payment (formerly known as Disability Pension) exempt from the income test under the Social Security Act 1991.
Centrelink payments, such as the Age Pension, will increase as a result and removes the need for DFISA. In addition, Rent Assistance became available, or increased, for some veterans.
These changes were announced by email from the DVA Secretary in early December 2021, however, some letters were delayed which meant some veterans did not know why their DFISA payment had been reduced prior to 13 January.
Those who had previously received DFISA found that on the first payday of 2022, part of the DFISA payment was reduced.
On payday 27 January, there will be no DFISA paid, however, social security payments from Centrelink will increase accordingly.
The part payment on 13 January was made because the effective date of 1 January fell in the middle of the pay period. As Centrelink paydays differ for each person, payments did not align with DVA veteran paydays.
Veterans and their partners do not need to do anything, as the payments will be made automatically.
Further information can be found on the DFISA page of the Department of Veterans Affairs website www.dva.gov.au under “What’s New”: https://www.dva.gov.au/financial-support/income-support/allowances/defence-force-income-support-allowance-dfisa