EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Veterans' Entitlements Treatment (Veterans' Home Care - Veterans' Dependants) Determination 7/2001.
The attached Determination is about ensuring certain home-services continue to be delivered to the family home despite the absence from the home, due to death or illness, of the person primarily eligible to receive those services.
The services in question are "domestic assistance" and "home and garden maintenance" (Veterans' Home Care Services).
Veterans' Home Care Services are primarily provided to a veteran or the veteran's widow(er) (original beneficiaries). However the nature of the services are such that they benefit the home generally. Accordingly other people in the home, such as children, benefit from the services albeit they are not, but for this Determination, eligible for those services.
In cases where the primary beneficiary dies or must leave the family home to seek treatment, it seemed harsh, to the Repatriation Commission, that services to the home had to be immediately discontinued.
While a veteran's widow(er) or even the veteran's child might ultimately become eligible for the services in their own right, nevertheless there would be an inevitable delay before that eligibility could be confirmed.
Also, it may be that the veteran's widow(er) or child might not be eligible for the services in their own right and might need to seek similar services under the Home And Community Care program (HACC). Again, there could be a delay before the relevant services are forthcoming.
The attached Determination will enable interim domestic assistance or home and garden maintenance (treatment) to be provided to, generally speaking, the people remaining in the family home provided those people are dependants or former dependants of the veteran.
The dependants or former dependants of the veteran who are eligible for the relevant services are:
- a partner of the veteran;
- a widow or widower of the veteran;
- a child of the veteran;
- a former child of the veteran (being a former child with a serious disability);
- a former child of the veteran who was a full-time carer of the veteran
or of the veteran's widow(er) immediately prior to the death of the veteran or his or her widow(er) or who was a full-time carer of the veteran or of the veteran's widow(er) immediately prior to the veteran or his or her widow(er) departing the home for treatment.
It should be noted that under the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 a child of a veteran is a person who has not turned 16 or, if a student, has not turned 25. Accordingly a child of a veteran who has turned 16 or 25, as the case may be, is a former child of the veteran. Widows, widowers, and children of veterans are dependants of the veteran.
The legal basis for the Determination is paragraphs 88A(1)(b) and (c) of the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 which enable the Repatriation Commission to provide treatment to current and former dependants of veterans.
The fact that the Determination would take effect before gazettal does not cause the Determination to be ineffective by virtue of subsection 48(2) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 because the rights of a person at gazettal would not be affected so as to disadvantage the person nor will a liability be imposed on any person in respect of anything done or omitted to be done before gazettal. The Determination is beneficial legislation.
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Repatriation Commission