Relevance of this question

Relevance of this question

The normal weekly earnings (NWE) of Reserve clients is calculated by the Incapacity Calculator from a combination of the client's:

• weekly salary from civilian employment;
• weekly allowances from civilian employment;
• weekly salary from Reserve employment; and
• weekly allowances from Reserve employment.

NWE forms the basis for setting rates of compensation under the SRC Act.

When establishing NWE, it is important to remember that the overall intention is to compensate the client at a rate which is a fair representation of what the client would have received but for the injury.

Note that, once a member has discharged from the ADF, the NWE at date of discharge is not increased in line with increases in military and civilian wages and allowances.  Rather, NWE is increased annually, on 1 July, by the Wage Cost Index (WCI).

After the release of Incapacity Calculator v 5.0 (on 1 July 2002), civilian salary is collected as a weekly amount, not a fortnightly amount as previously, in order to standardise all time amounts in the Calculator to a common unit - weeks.  The Calculator includes a time-sensitive rule to ensure that salary amounts in a assessment made before 1 July 2002 is still collected as a fortnightly amount in order to avoid affecting pre-existing investigations.  The Calculator automatically converts the fortnightly salary into a weekly amount for calculation purposes.