DRCA original determinations made on or after 21 April 2025 must be appealed directly to the Veterans’ Review Board (VRB) within 12 months. Subsequent determinations by the VRB can be appealed to the Administrative Review Tribunal. Claimants cannot request a reconsideration by the Commission for determinations made on or after 21 April 2025, however the Commission continues to have the discretion to initiate a reconsideration of own motion.
A copy of the Explanatory Statement which accompanies the DRCA PI Guide can be found at: http://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2023L00364/Explanatory%20Statement/Text
A full copy of the current DRCA PI Guide can be found at http://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/F2023L00364
The WPI approach was first indicated in the second reading speech that introduced the bill that brought about the SRCA and subsequently the Approved Guide in 1988.
The concept of WPI has been adopted throughout earlier versions of the Approved Guide, and the 'Introduction' in the DRCA PI Guide includes the following discussion:
Each injury must be assessed separately under section 27 and delegates must determine the NEL that the claimant suffered as a result of the specific injury being assessed. In doing so, delegate’s should not take into account the effect of previous/separate injuries and must not purport to ‘offset’ the NEL payable in respect of one injury against the NEL paid in respect of a separate/previous injury.
Step 2 under Table B5 is used to convert the scores for Tables B1- B4 into a percentage that is then multiplied by the second half of the maximum NEL amount.
Non-economic loss compensation under section 27 is not payable when determining interim compensation under section 25.
Non-economic loss compensation is only payable when compensation for permanent impairment can be determined under section 24.
Table B3 is used to assess losses of a non-economic nature where it is clear that a particular element of NEL cannot be adequately assessed under Tables B1, B2 or B4. A score out of 3 is given and then combined with the scores derived from Tables B1, B2 and B4 using the combined value calculation in Table B5.
The DRCA PI Guide includes the following introductory notes concerning the Communication Disorders tables (Tables 12.2 and 12.3):
These tables should not be used to assess problems whose origins are genetic, social or educational. Their use is confined to the assessment of the consequences of neurological injury or disease.
If the impairment under investigation is of a kind that cannot be assessed in accordance with the provisions of the Approved Guide, the Introduction to the Approved Guide authorises reference to the provisions of the current American Medical Association's Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (the AMA Guides) in making the assessment. Note, however, that the AMA Guides are to be used only in very rare cases where it is not possible for a person's condition to be assessed under the Approved Guide.
