Legislation
When determining whether a person reasonably requires household services, section 215 of MRCA and section 29(2) of DRCA require a Delegate to consider:
- the extent to which household members, or any other relatives of the person, might reasonably be expected to provide household services for themselves and for the person, and
- the need to avoid substantial disruption to the work or other activities of the household members.
What does 'reasonably be expected' mean?
Clause 215 of the Explanatory Memorandum to the MRCA Bill states that household services are not payable if there are other family or household members who could reasonably be expected to undertake those tasks and doing so would not cause disruption to that person's employment or to other external commitments.
This does not mean that for every situation where at least one other healthy member of a household resides with the injured person, compensation for household services cannot be paid.
The key consideration is what can be reasonably expected of other household members, given:
- their age;
- how able they are to manage domestic tasks in their shared household; and
- the need to avoid substantially disrupting the household member’s employment or other commitments outside their home.
For further information about ‘substantial disruption’ please refer to section 7.2.4 in this library.