Transferring a claim on Defcare falls into two categories, primary (overall responsibility for all processes) and secondary (responsibility for a single process e.g. permanent impairment).
The Defcare User manual contains specific instructions on how to maintain and update file location and responsibility information on each compensation claim or rehabilitation case.
If a request to have a claim for rehabilitation and compensation withdrawn is made by a member, and the claim form has been received within the office but a file has not been raised and no details have been entered onto aDVAnce/PRS or Defcare, the claim form is to be returned to the member. No action whatsoever is to be taken with the claim form.
Reasonable disciplinary action may include processes such as:
– appearance before an officer on a formal charge of misconduct
– a court martial
The 1930 Act has no schedule of occupational diseases analogous to those declared for the purposes of the 1971 Act and the SRCA.
Delegates determining any disease claim relating to the 1930 Act must decide whether, on the balance of probabilities (i.e. is it more likely than not?) the disease arose due to the nature of military employment.
ADF members are sometimes, as an aspect of their employment, required to attend official celebrations or unit-sponsored social events at times which are otherwise 'out of hours'. Examples may be formal mess 'Dining-In' nights, award ceremonies, 'hail and farewells' or unit-sponsored celebration of unit successes.
Where attendance at such events is regarded by the unit as either compulsory or at least 'expected', those present are on duty and have compensation coverage.
'Place of residence' is defined in S4(1) of the SRCA:
'Place of residence', in relation to an employee, means:
a)the place where the employee normally resides
b)a place, other than the place referred to in paragraph (a), where the employee resides temporarily, as a matter of necessity or convenience, for the purposes of his or her employment, or
Section 57 of the SRCA provides that a client's right to compensation under the Act may be suspended if, 'without reasonable excuse', that client fails to attend or obstructs a medical examination required by the Delegate. This means – in the context of an initial liability investigation – that the case will no longer be progressed and no decision on liability need be made. This suspension remains in force, until the client complies with the direction under S57.
Given the Commonwealth's role as the medical record owner, Delegates should not invoke S54 in respect to full-time serving and discharged claimants. Clients declining to participate in the recovery of ADF medical documents should not be penalised in any way for this refusal. The Delegate should instead undertake a prompt document search by means of a request to the Single Access Mechanism (SAM) team in Canberra's DVA Office through DOCTRACKER. In the case of a discharged claimant, the request should also be addressed to SAM.
As outlined at 9.1.1, Delegates may only accept liability for a defined medical condition.
The condition claimed by the employee on the claim form is, at the start of the Delegate's investigation, an alleged condition only. The matter of defining what – if anything – the employee suffers from must be resolved before inquiring as to whether that condition can be attributed to ADF employment.
