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8.2.2 Eligibility for Disability Compensation Bereavement Payment

Document
Last amended 
1 January 2022

 

Eligibility for Disability Compensation Bereavement Payment (formerly known as Disability Pension Bereavement Payment)

    

VEA →

 

A person is eligible for disability compensation bereavement payment if, immediately before the death of the veteran, they were a member of a couple, and the veteran:

 

Single veteran, and the veteran:

  • has died,
  • was receiving a disability compensation payment at the:
  • Special Rate; or
  • Extreme Disablement Adjustment (EDA) rate.

and:

  • died in indigent circumstances.    More →

 

When notified of a veteran's death, the eligibility for Disability Compensation Bereavement Payment needs to be determined and calculated. The table below illustrates the situations where a form needs to be completed.

 

If the veteran was...

Then the disability compensation bereavement payment

a member of a couple

Is automatic and will be paid in a lump sum payment on the next available payday. There is no form to complete.

a single member

Requires an application from the estate of the deceased veteran on the 'Claim for Bereavement Payment for Single Veterans' form.



Death of partner before disability compensation bereavement payment made

 

VEA →

 

The table below describes what happens if the late veteran's partner dies before any bereavement payment is made. If the veteran and the partner die at the same time, (for example in a motor vehicle accident) the elder person is deemed under law to have died first.

 

If the partner of a deceased disability compensation payment recipient dies

Then the disability compensation payment

Before the veteran

Is only payable if the veteran was in receipt of special rate or EDA and died in indigent circumstances    

More →

 

After the veteran's death, but before the Commission has been notified of the veteran's death

Is paid to the estate of the widow/widower

After the veteran's death, but before the Commission has been notified

Is paid to the estate of the veteran

Death of claimant before disability compensation payment claim determined

If a veteran lodges a claim for a disability compensation payment and dies before it is determined, any disability compensation bereavement payment may have to be recalculated once the claim is determined.    

More →

 

 

 

 

Payment of Disability Compensation Bereavement Payment

Section 8.3.5

 

More → (go back)

 

Section 98A(3) VEA - Notification of partners death at same time or before deceased veterans death

Section 98A(4) VEA - Bereavement payment made to estate where advice of veteran's death received after advice of widow's death

 

VEA → (go back)

 

Payment of Disability Compensation Bereavement Payment

Section 8.3.5

 

More → (go back)

 

Calculation of disability compensation bereavement payment

Section 8.2.3

 

More → (go back)

A bereavement payment is an amount payable in respect of a deceased pensioner that represents a continuation of the pensioner's entitlement for a period following the death (the bereavement period).

The payment can be made as:

  • a lump sum in advance, or
  • a continuation of the deceased person's pension instalments, or
  • a combination of both, or
  • a portion of the rate of pension payable to the surviving member of a couple identified as a separate amount only for taxation purposes.

According to Section 5E(2) of the VEA a person is a member of a couple, if they are:

  • legally married to another person and is not living separately and apart from the other person on a permanent basis; or
  • living in a prescribed registered relationship with the other person (whether of the same sex or a different sex) and is not living separately and apart from that other person on a permanent basis; or
  • all of the following conditions are met:
  • living with another person, whether of the same sex or a different sex;
  • not legally married to that person;
  • in a de facto relationship with that person; and
  • not in a prohibited relationship

The term “partnered” is also commonly used.

Disability compensation payment (known before 2022 as disability pension), for the purposes of service pension, income support supplement and veteran payment, means:

  • a pension paid by way of compenstion for incapacity from war caused conditions, or peacetime, peacekeeping or hazardous service caused conditions (other than a war widow's or orphan's pension); or
  • temporary incapacity allowance; or
  • any other payment in respect of incapacity or death resulting from war or war-like operations in which the Crown has been engaged (usually paid by another Commonwealth country).

Please note that the Disability Compensation Payment is legally a pension by way of compensation under the VEA so that concessional benefits under state, territory and local government legislation to pensioners/pensions under the VEA are not denied.

 

According to Section 179 of the VEA, the Commission is a body corporate under the name of Repatriation Commission.