Soul and Repatriation Commission (Veterans' entitlements)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered the case of an applicant seeking a veteran's pension against the Repatriation Commission. The dispute centred on whether the applicant was eligible for the special rate or intermediate rate of pension, specifically concerning the "alone test" as stipulated in sections 23 and 24 of the relevant Act.

The Tribunal was required to determine if the applicant's incapacity, solely due to his accepted war-caused conditions, prevented him from undertaking remunerative work for more than eight hours per week. This involved assessing whether any non-war-caused factors contributed to his inability to work, which would preclude him from satisfying the "alone" requirement.

The Tribunal acknowledged that the applicant met the threshold criteria for the special rate but found that the evidence did not sufficiently satisfy the "alone" test. This was primarily due to the applicant's own statement in a 2001 lifestyle questionnaire that "age initially" was the reason he stopped working. Applying the principle established in *Repatriation Commission v Watkins* and related cases, the Tribunal held that if non-war-caused factors, even if secondary, contribute to preventing a veteran from working, the "alone" requirement is not met. Despite this finding regarding the "alone" test, the Tribunal, after reviewing all the evidence, was reasonably satisfied that the applicant was nonetheless eligible for payment at the special rate.

Consequently, the Tribunal set aside the decision under review and substituted a new decision, finding the applicant entitled to pension at the special rate from 1 July 2014.