Weekly payments for incapacity are made on the basis of lost income. Clients may thus rely on prompt payment of this entitlement to meet the necessities of life or for other important financial commitments e.g. to prevent default on a mortgage.
Incapacity payments for discharged members must therefore be rated as 'urgent' as a matter of course, deserving of a delegate's attention in advance of all other categories of work (with the exception of the payment of a death benefit to a dependant).
Nevertheless, not all incapacity claims have the same level of urgency. DVA policy is that a delegate's priorities between incapacity requests should be determined on a case-by-case basis, having regard to the client's needs. For instance, the case of a totally incapacitated reservist with few financial resources should take priority over the case of a small 'top up' to a serving full-time member, i.e. even if the 'top up' claim was received first.