Section 4(1) of the SRCA defines a 'prescribed child', thus:
4(1) 'prescribed child' means:
a)a person under 16, or
b)a person who:
(i)is 16 or more but under 25
(ii)is receiving full time education at a school, college, university or other educational institution, and
(iii)is not ordinarily in employment or engaged in work on his or her own account.
The SRCA contains separate provisions with respect to the effect of awards from certain State 'specified laws' and awards under State worker's compensation legislation.
Calculating the amount of economic loss can be tricky and each case will need to be determined on its own merits.
The delegate must consider the following factors and nothing else:
1. The financial loss suffered by the dependant as a result of the death
2. The length of time that the dependant would have been dependent on the deceased employee.
It is important to remember that the death lump sum is compensation for loss of economic support and does not compensate for emotional distress as a result of the death.
Nothing in the above Part 2.3 about the urgency of claims for recent deaths should be taken to imply that speed is preferred to accuracy in cases where there is a conflict between the two. In fact, the correctness of the final determination is absolutely vital to Death cases and should be regarded as paramount to all other considerations.
Subsection 17(10) of the SRCA says:
The SRCA and its predecessors all provide benefits in cases where the death of an employee results from Commonwealth employment. For the purposes of establishing a nexus with employment, death may be considered a special sub-set of injury, and the business rules outlined in the 'Liability' chapter of this Handbook should be applied to determine whether the death is compensable.
This Handbook provides guidance with respect to deaths occurring under the SRCA – and also to deaths under the 1971 and 1930 Acts, although claims for deaths under previous Acts are, in practice, rare.
Where an injury to an employee results in death, section 17 provides for the payment of lump sum compensation to the dependants of the employee, who were wholly or partly dependent on the employee at the date of the employee's death.
Determination of the amount of lump sum compensation payable under section 17 requires the delegate to establish whether the various 'dependants' – i.e. those who are candidates for sharing in the payment – were wholly or partially dependent (on the deceased employee) for economic support.
Deaths from accepted conditions are often the simplest to determine, because the nexus with the condition alleged to produce the death has already been tested and accepted. However delegates will still have to confirm on the basis of the death certificate or by means of other medical advice, that the condition (i.e. for which the Commonwealth had previously accepted liability) resulted in death.
The term 'prescribed child' is defined in section 4(1) of the SRCA. It broadly means a person under 16, or a person aged 16 and up to 25 years, in full time education and not generally in employment. Refer to Part 1.18 for explanation of the 'prescribed child'.
The Act, in providing that any 'child of the employee who was born alive after the employee's death' is to be held to be 'wholly dependent upon the employee' in fact creates an anomaly if that child is not also a child of the employee's spouse.
Section 18 provides that in cases of a compensable death, the Commonwealth is liable to pay or contribute to the cost of the funeral.
The amount payable is, '..as Comcare considers reasonable..' but up to a maximum amount which is also indexed on 1 July each year.
