Which Allowances are included in NWE?

Which Allowances are included in NWE?

General rule

As a general rule, the following types of allowances should be included in NWE:

• allowances which are taxable;
• allowances which continue to be paid during leave;
• allowances which are paid in respect of skills or qualifications attained by the client.

A limited number of disability allowances, discussed in Seagoing Allowance and Other Disability Allowances below, should also be included in NWE.  However, it is important to note that such disability allowances will only be included in NWE for so long as the allowance would have continued to be paid but for the injury.

The intention of including allowances in NWE is to ensure that it is a fair reflection of what the client would have earned but for their injury.  In the main, only skills-based allowances would continue to be paid after discharge from the ADF and then only for so long as the allowance would have been paid in other circumstances.  As an example of this, if a client was paid a skills-based allowance which is payable only to a certain age while a member is in service, this amount should not be included in NWE after the client attain that age.

Disability allowances should not be included in NWE after discharge unless the client was medically discharged.  In a medical discharge case, the disability allowance should continue to be included in NWE, but only until such time as the allowance would otherwise cease to have been paid.

An allowance for monies expended (or likely to be spent) by the member is not earnings and should not be included in a client's NWE.  Examples of such allowances are travel allowance and tropical clothing allowance.

Examples

Allowances which should be included and excluded from NWE calculations are listed in the following Table.  Note however that the list is not exhaustive.

Service Allowance

Service Allowance is included in NWE, but it should not be included in the total amount of Allowances as requested by this question.  Rather, Service Allowance combined with the client's weekly salary jointly constitutes the client's “Military Salary”, which is collected in a separate question.