EXPLANATORY NOTE

VETERANS’ ENTITLEMENTS ACT 1986

SUBSECTION 45AA(1)

VETERANS' ENTITLEMENTS (INCOME SUPPORT SUPPLEMENT - PERMANENT INCAPACITY FOR WORK) DETERMINATION 1999

1. This determination sets out the circumstances where a person is permanently incapacitated for work in order to be eligible for income support supplement on the basis of being permanently incapacitated for work.

The determination is made under subsection 45AA(1) of the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 ('the VEA').

2. A person will be considered permanently incapacitated for work if:

• the person is permanently blind in both eyes; or
• the person has a physical, intellectual or psychiatric impairment; and
• the impairment would be assessed at 20 points or more under the Social Security Impairment Tables in Schedule 1B of the Social Security Act 1991 if it were deemed an impairment for those tables; and
• the Repatriation Commission is satisfied that solely because of the impairment, the person cannot work for the following two years for at least 30 hours a week at award wages or above in Australia.

It should be noted that the work in question need only exist in Australia.  It does not have to be available, for a particular person, in the locally accessible labour market.

3.  By way of information, if the Repatriation Commission is not satisfied a person is permanently incapacitated for work in accordance with the criteria mentioned above, the person may have that decision reviewed as part of an overall review of the Commission's decision not to grant an income support supplement.  This right of review is available under section 57 of the VEA.