The most appropriate way to ascertain the economic loss that a dependant has suffered as a result of the cessation of the employee's earnings is to consider all the sources of economic support that each dependant had at the date of the employee's death and to determine what proportion of support was constituted by the employee's earnings.
It will not be appropriate to consider superannuation (or life insurance policies etc.) as a form of economic support as there is separate legislation dealing with superannuation entitlement in the event of an employee's death. In ascertaining the totality of economic support available, the following should not be taken into account:
- an amount of compensation paid or payable under the SRCA before the death of an employee, consistently with subsection 17(7) of the SRCA; or
- compensation available for a prescribed child under ss 17(5) (weekly compensation)
For a dependent child, consistent with subsection 4(7) of the SRCA, the following must not be taken into account:
- family tax benefit calculated under Part 2 or 3 of Schedule 1 to the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999 (an individual's Part A rate); and
- carer allowance under that Act; and
- double orphan pension under that Act.