External

Salary from civilian employment

There are two methods for calculating civilian earnings for injured Reservists:

  1. actual civilian earnings;
  2. deemed civilian earnings.

In general, the actual fortnightly civilian earnings should be used.  Note, however, that the assessor is required to choose the option which best provides a fair representation of what an employee could reasonably have expected to earn in civilian employment but for their injury in Reserve employment.

Option A - Actual civilian earnings

Actual civilian earnings should be used in almost all cases where the Reservist has full-time civilian employment as well as his/her Reserve employment.

Actual civilian earnings would normally be used where the Reservist has part-time civilian employment as well as his/her Reserve employment.  However, a deemed rate should be used where the rate of civilian earnings is low and, when added to Reserve earnings, is still less than the NWE deemed in relation to unemployed Reservists using the “daily Reserve rate x 7” method of calculating NWE.

To obtain details of earnings from civilian employment, the employer should be approached; refer to Standard Letters incap 07 and incap 08.

Option B - Deemed civilian earnings

Deemed civilian earnings should be used where the Reservist had no civilian employment or earnings at the time of the injury.  In such cases, an earning capacity in civilian employment will be deemed on the basis discussed in sections 5 and 6 of DCI 6 (below).  This involves either an assessment of earning capacity (Option 1) or the adoption of a standard deemed rate based on “daily Reserve rate x 7” (Option 2).

Deemed civilian earnings should also be used where the Reservist had some part-time employment, but the amount of earnings was low and, when added to Reserve earnings, is still less than the NWE deemed in relation to unemployed Reservists using the “daily Reserve rate x 7” method of calculating NWE.

NOTE: when civilian earnings are deemed using “daily Reserve rate x 7”, all of the weekly incapacity payment is taxable.