Veterans’ Entitlements (Transition Care/Home Care Package – Co Payment for Ex POW/Victoria Cross Recipients) Eligibility Determination 2021 (Cth)

REPATRIATION COMMISSION

Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986

Veterans’ Entitlements (Transition Care/Home Care Package – Co Payment for Ex POW/Victoria Cross Recipients) Eligibility Determination 2021

Instrument 2021 No R10

1.         The Repatriation Commission makes this Determination under paragraph 88A(1)(a) of the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986 (Act).

2. For the purposes of paragraph 88A(1)(a) of the Act the Repatriation Commission specifies the class of persons in Part 2 and the kind of treatment in Part 3.

Dated this      26th                  day of   March              2021

The Seal of the   )

Repatriation Commission          )

was affixed hereto in the            )

presence of:     )

Elizabeth Cosson	Kate Pope	Donald Spinks
ELIZABETH COSSON	KATE POPE	DONALD SPINKS
AM CSC	PSM	AM
PRESIDENT Gwen Cherne GWEN CHERNE COMMISSIONER	DEPUTY PRESIDENT	COMMISSIONER Stuart Smith STUART SMITH AO DSC COMMISSIONER

Part 1        Introduction

1.1    Name of Determination

This Determination is the Veterans’ Entitlements (Transition Care/Home Care Package – Co Payment for Ex POW/Victoria Cross Recipients) Eligibility Determination 2021.

1.2     Commencement

This Determination commences on the day after the day it is registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.

1.3     Revocation

The Veterans’ Entitlements (Transition Care/Community Care at Home Package – Co Payment for Ex POW/Victoria Cross Recipients) Eligibility Determination 2011 is revoked.

1.4    Definitions

In this Determination:

Act means the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986.

Home Care Package means the treatment received under a Home Care Package referred to in Part D of PART 10 of the Treatment Principles.

Repatriation Commission means the body corporate continued in existence under section 179 of the Act.

specified class means the class of persons specified in Part 2 of this Determination.

specified treatment means treatment described in Part 3 of this Determination.

transition care means the treatment of that name in Part E of PART 10 of the Treatment Principles.

Treatment Principles means the document prepared by the Repatriation Commission under section 90 of the Act.

veteran means a person described in paragraph (a) of the definition of veteran in subsection 5C(1) of the Actor means a person described in paragraph 81(2)(a) of the Act(as those provisions are in force from time to time).

1.5   Purpose

To specify, for the purposes of paragraph 88A(1)(a) of the Act respectively, a class of veterans and the kind of treatment a veteran within a relevant class is eligible to be provided under the Act.

Upon the identification of the class and the relevant treatment, the Repatriation Commission may accept financial responsibility for the relevant treatment provided to a person in the class.

Section 88A of the Act enables the Repatriation Commission to extend treatment-eligibility in the Act so that a person may be provided with treatment for any injury/disease, irrespective of whether it is service-related and may be provided with treatment where no injury/disease exists (e.g. frailty).  In the Act, eligibility for treatment is generally (but not always) dependent on whether a person’s injury/disease is service-related and is always dependent on the person suffering from an injury/disease.

Section 88A is used in the current situation to confer eligibility for treatment (either transition care or care received under a Home Care Package) on a veteran who is a former prisoner of war or the recipient of the Victoria Cross who may not be suffering from an injury/disease that is service-related or who may not be suffering from an injury/disease at all but who is frail.

In either situation the person is, by virtue of this determination, eligible for transition care or Home Care Package, under the Treatment Principles.

Eligibility for the treatment enables the Repatriation Commission to accept financial responsibility for the co-payment a former prisoner of war, or an entitled veteran awarded the Victoria Cross has paid, or is liable to pay, for the Home Care Package or transition care.

Part 2         Specified Class of Person

A person who:

(a)is a veteran; and

(b)     is a former prisoner of war or the recipient of the Victoria Cross;

is eligible to be provided with the specified treatment.

Part 3         Specified Kind of Treatment

The kind of treatment a person within the specified class is eligible to be provided with under Part V of the Act is:

(a)     Home Care Package;

(b)     transition care.