Frequently Disability Compensation Payment is paid for a number of conditions, arising out of the same compensable incident. For example, following an occurrence on operational service in 1999, Veteran A suffers incapacity from an accepted back condition and pain to his lower limbs. As a result of this incapacity, Veteran A subsequently suffers an emotional and behaviour disorder. Compensation for both forms of incapacity may be paid under the VEA and the DRCA. While these three injuries are clearly linked by a common incident, they should only be included for offsetting calculations where they relate to a common incapacity.
In the above example, Veteran A may have received several lump sums under the DRCA. He may have received an initial and an additional lump sum for his back and lower limb conditions and a third lump sum for his emotional disorder.
Scenario 1: If all conditions are also accepted under the VEA, then the three lump sum payments are offset against his Disability Compensation Payment. When calculating a notional assessment of the Disability Compensation Payment paid in respect of the compensable condition(s), the incapacity from all three conditions would be excluded in Step 1 of lump sum offsetting steps. Similarly the fortnightly equivalents of the lump sums should be added together in Step 2.
Scenario 2: If the emotional and behavioural condition is accepted under the VEA, but not the two pysical conditions, then only the lump sum for the emotional and behavioural condition is offset against the Disability Compensation Payment paid in respect of the emotional and behavioural incapacity. (The Disability Compensation Payment would need to be apportioned accordingly, if Veteran A has other VEA conditions.) In this circumstance, the lump sums paid in respect of the incapacity for the back and lower limbs are not offset, unless the veteran is affected by section 25A.
Scenario 3: If only the lower limb condition is compensated under the VEA, then delegates must examine whether the medical evidence shows that the back condition and the lower limb condition produce the same incapacity, this is, the same effect on the veteran. It could not be said that an emotional and behavioural condition relates to the same incapacity as a lower limb condition and therefore that payment should not be offset.