Where a veteran has given another person authority (e.g. an advocate or a lawyer, etc.) to assist or act on their behalf in relation to their claims, delegates must ensure all communications, written and verbal, are conducted through that person. However, to ensure transparency and promote best practice during claims processing, delegates should also ensure veterans have visibility of all communications and correspondence. If a veteran provides instructions to the Department on the contrary, these instructions should be recorded appropriately in the relevant ICT systems to ensure national visibility of the arrangements.
Where there is an agreement in place between a nominated representative and the Department that a veteran should not be contacted for special reasons (e.g. vulnerable veterans supported by an internal single point of contact, or Power of Attorney arrangements), delegates are not required to provide those clients with visibility of all communications and correspondence. Delegates should take a common sense approach and assess the needs of veterans and their nominated representatives on a case by case basis.