What Evidence Helps a DVA Claim?

Medical evidence

Medical evidence is the foundation of almost every claim. It establishes the diagnosis and shows the condition's ongoing impact.

• Formal diagnosis from a qualified clinician
• GP notes around the time the condition first appeared
• Hospital records and discharge summaries
• Imaging, scans and pathology results

Specialist reports

Specialist reports often add the most weight to a claim, particularly for chronic or complex conditions. They help confirm severity, ongoing treatment and prognosis in clinical language that DVA assessments can rely on. If a specialist has been involved in your care, their reports — even older ones — are worth including.

Service records

Service records establish that the relevant exposures, duties or incidents actually occurred during your time in uniform.

• Postings, ships and units
• Deployments and operations
• Incident reports or injury records
• Discharge documents

Timelines

A clear timeline that combines service and medical events helps show when symptoms started in relation to relevant service. Even an approximate timeline is significantly stronger than a list of undated documents.

Symptoms

Your own description of symptoms i.e. when they started, how they've changed, how they affect day-to-day life. Why? It adds important context that records alone don't capture.

Treatment history

Document treatments tried, current medications, therapies and any ongoing management. A consistent treatment history reinforces both the diagnosis and the impact.

How Veterans Compass organises your evidence

Upload your documents and Veterans Compass extracts the key facts automatically — dates, diagnoses, providers, exposures. Your evidence is grouped by condition and mapped to the relevant SOP so you can see exactly what supports your claim and what might be missing.