Bills Digest No.
008, 2022–23
PDF Version [380KB]
Michael Klapdor
Social Policy Section
25 August 2022
Key points
- The Bill proposes to expand eligibility for and the services available under the Department of Veterans’ Affairs Family Support Program.
- The Family Support Program provides access to counselling, child care and other support services. It is currently limited to veterans and the families of veterans with warlike service since July 2004 who are in receipt of certain incapacity payments, and to the widows of veterans with warlike service since July 2004.
- A similar Bill was introduced by the Coalition Government in the 46th Parliament but was not passed before the 2022 Election.
- The main changes to the program are:
- removing the eligibility requirement for the veterans to have warlike service
- removing a requirement for eligible veterans to be participating in a rehabilitation program
- allowing veterans and the families of veterans with service prior to July 2004 to access the program
- increasing the amount of assistance available and removing limits for specific services so families have flexibility in what assistance they access.
- A key eligibility criterion, that individuals or a family member be in crisis or at risk of a crisis, is not defined in the Bill.
- The Bill also places a new age cap of 65 years for access to the program. The current program provides access to veterans aged up to Age Pension eligibility age (currently 66 years and 6 months).
- According to Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Matt Keogh, 49 widowed partners and their families and 120 veterans and their families have been assisted by the Family Support Package since it commenced in 2018. The Minister stated that approximately 430 families and 450 widowed partners will benefit from the expanded program in its first year.
- The changes are expected to cost $36.8 million over 4 years.
- Key differences between this Bill and the Bill in the previous Parliament are that the current Bill proposes to rename the program as the Defence, Veterans’ and Families’ Acute Support Package, the current Bill includes merit review provisions, and the current Bill provides for recovery of overpayments in certain circumstances.
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Contents
Purpose of the Bill
History of the Bill
Background
Family Support Package
Expanded eligibility announced in the
2021–22 Budget
Committee consideration
Senate Selection of Bills Committee
Senate Standing Committee for the
Scrutiny of Bills
Policy position of non-government
parties/independents
Position of major interest groups
Financial implications
Statement of Compatibility with Human
Rights
Parliamentary Joint Committee on
Human Rights
Key issues and provisions
Differences between the Bill and the
Enhanced Family Support Bill
Key changes
Numbers affected
Key provisions
Date introduced: 3
August 2022
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Veterans'
Affairs
Commencement: The
day after the end of a 7-day period beginning on the day of Royal Assent.
Links: The links to the Bill,
its Explanatory Memorandum and second reading speech can be found on the
Bill’s home page, or through the Australian
Parliament website.
When Bills have been passed and have received Royal Assent,
they become Acts, which can be found at the Federal Register of Legislation
website.
All hyperlinks in this Bills Digest are correct as
at August 2022.
Purpose of
the Bill
The Defence, Veterans’ and Families’ Acute Support Package
Bill 2022 (the Bill) proposes amendments to the Military,
Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (the MRCA), the Safety,
Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related claims) Act 1988 (the DRCA)
and the Veterans’
Entitlements Act 1986 (the VEA) to:
- rename
the Department of Veterans’ Affairs’ (DVA) Family Support Package as the Defence,
Veterans’ and Families’ Acute Support Package
- expand
eligibility for the Package
- provide
for the program to deliver new forms of assistance to eligible families
- allow
for merits review of decisions made in relation to the Acute Support Package.
History of
the Bill
A Bill with
similar, but not identical, provisions was introduced in the 46th Parliament on
16 February 2022 but lapsed at the end of that parliament. The Veterans’
Affairs Legislation Amendment (Enhanced Family Support) Bill 2022 (the Enhanced
Family Support Bill) proposed to extend eligibility and the services provided
under the Family Support Package but did not propose to change the name of the
Package and did not include provisions providing for merits review.[1]
For further information on this Bill, see the Parliamentary Library FlagPost, ‘Veterans’
Affairs Legislation Amendment (Enhanced Family Support) Bill 2022’.[2]
Background
Family
Support Package
The DVA Family
Support Package was introduced in 2018 and provides access to counselling and
other support services to the families of eligible veterans receiving
incapacity payments and to some widowed partners of veterans.[3] The
Veterans’
Affairs Legislation Amendment (Veteran-centric Reforms No. 1) Act 2018
provided the legislative framework to establish the Package. It was established
in response to a recommendation of the 2017 Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and
Trade Committee’s report, The Constant Battle: Suicide by Veterans.[4]
The Senate Committee recommendation was for DVA to review the support for
partners of veterans and identify further assistance including services such as
advice, counselling, and options for family respite care.[5]
Currently, the Family Support Package supports veterans
and the families of veterans where the veteran’s service is covered under the Military
Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (the MRCA)—this Act
covers service from July 2004. To be eligible, the veteran must:
Widowed partners are
also eligible for the Family Support Package where:
- they
were the partner of the veteran at the time of their death
- the
veteran had rendered warlike service and
- the
veteran’s death was a suicide related to their service, or was a service death.[8]
Supports available include help with the costs of child
care and life skills/counselling support. Widows may also receive home help
assistance such as cooking, cleaning, gardening, and maintenance.[9]
Expanded
eligibility announced in the 2021–22 Budget
An ‘Enhanced Family Support Package’ was announced in the
2021–22 Budget.[10]
The budget measure included the eligibility changes proposed in the Bill and
the Enhanced Family Support Bill but proposed lower amounts of support than in
the measures proposed in both Bills.[11]
The 2021–22 budget measure was expected to cost $5.1 million over the forward
estimates.[12]
The 2022–23 Budget also included a Family Support Package measure: a proposal
to increase the eligibility age for widowed partners from 60–65 and to increase
the value of services offered. The 2022–23 measure was expected to cost $36.8
million over the forward estimates.[13]
The measures proposed in the Enhanced Family Support Bill were estimated to
cost $30.2 million while the measures in the Bill are estimated at $36.8
million over four years.[14]
The changes to the Family Support Package were announced
as part of the Government’s response to the Productivity Commission’s 2019 report
on support for veterans, A Better Way to Support Veterans.[15]
Recommendation 19.2 identified specific changes to expand eligibility for the
Family Support Package including:
- removing
the warlike service requirement
- expanding
the program to those with service covered under the VEA and DRCA (that
is, service prior to July 2004)
- expand
eligibility to those receiving the Veteran Payment (an interim payment paid
under the VEA to some individuals awaiting compensation claims)
- expand
eligibility for counselling services to the parents and eligible children of
veterans who have suffered a service death or a suicide related to their
service
- expand
eligibility for counselling services to the families of veterans not
participating in a rehabilitation plan
- removing
counselling session limits and a requirement for an identified need, to be
replaced with a cap on total payments available.[16]
Committee
consideration
Senate
Selection of Bills Committee
In its report on 4 August 2022, the Senate Selection of
Bills Committee stated that it had deferred consideration of the Bill until its
next meeting.[17]
Senate
Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills
At the time of writing, the Senate Standing Committee for
the Scrutiny of Bills had not considered the Bill. The Scrutiny of Bills
Committee had no comment on the Enhanced Family Support Bill.[18]
Policy
position of non-government parties/independents
As noted in the ‘History of the Bill’ section, many of the
amendments proposed in the Bill were contained in the Enhanced Family Support
Bill introduced by the previous Coalition Government but not passed prior to
the 2022 Election.
The Australian Greens proposed amendments to the Enhanced
Family Support Bill to remove the age cap on access to the Family Support
Package and require legislative instruments made in relation to the Package to
provide for merits review of decisions made under the instrument. [19]
Position of
major interest groups
At the time of writing, major interest groups and
stakeholders do not appear to have commented on the Bill.
Financial
implications
The measures have an ‘indicative cost’ of $36.8 million
over 4 years.[20]
Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights
As required under Part 3 of the Human Rights
(Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 (Cth), the Government has assessed the
Bill’s compatibility with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared
in the international instruments listed in section 3 of that Act. The Government
considers that the Bill is compatible.[21]
Parliamentary
Joint Committee on Human Rights
At the time of writing, the Parliamentary Joint Committee
on Human Rights had not commented on the Bill. The Committee had no comment on
the Enhanced Family Support Bill.[22]
Key issues
and provisions
Differences
between the Bill and the Enhanced Family Support Bill
The key differences between the Bill and the previous
government’s Enhanced Family Support Bill are:
- the
Bill proposes to change the name of the Family Support Package to the Defence,
Veterans’ and Families’ Acute Support Package
- the
Bill includes provisions for merits review of decisions made regarding Acute
Support Package entitlements or services
- the
Bill proposes that amounts provided through the Acute Support Package be
subject to overpayment recovery provisions where amounts are paid because of a
false or misleading statement or representation, or a failure or omission to
comply with the legislative requirements.
As noted in the ‘Policy position of non-government
parties/independents’ section, the Australian Greens had proposed amendments to
the Enhanced Family Support Bill relating to merits review.
Key changes
Expanded
eligibility
The Bill proposes to extend eligibility for supports under
the renamed Defence, Veterans’ and Families’ Acute Support Package in three
ways:
- eligibility
will be extended to veterans with service prior to July 2004 by including the
Family Support Package in the VEA and the DRCA
- it
removes the requirement for the veterans to have undertaken ‘warlike’ service
and
- it
removes the requirement for injured veterans to be participating in a
rehabilitation program.
Veterans covered by the VEA and the DRCA will
need to be in receipt of disability compensation, incapacity payments or the
interim Veteran Payment under those schemes to be eligible for the Family
Support Package.
New
requirement will limit program to those in ‘crisis’
While removing
some of the current eligibility requirements, the Bill proposes that the Acute
Support Package be limited to veterans or the families of veterans who are
experiencing a crisis or are at risk of experiencing a crisis. ‘Crisis’ is not
defined in the proposed amendments but additional criteria may be set out in a
legislative instrument. The proposed crisis criteria would not apply to widowed
partners of veterans.
The current
criteria for the Family Support Package do not limit the supports to veterans
and families experiencing a crisis, only to those the Military Rehabilitation
and Compensation Commission is satisfied are ‘in need of the assistance or
benefits’.[23]
The Productivity
Commission recommended that the ‘requirement for an identified need’ for
support be removed but did not include any recommendation for the supports to
be limited to those facing a crisis.[24]
The Explanatory
Memorandum does not provide any further information on what kind of event,
circumstance or situation would meet the definition of crisis. Minister Keogh
gave a few examples of situations where a person would be eligible for the
program in his second reading speech: partners of veterans who have left the
relationship due to domestic violence, children of veterans experiencing mental
health issues, veterans whose health conditions have worsened and are unable to
work.[25] However, there was no clear
definition of when a circumstance would reach the crisis threshold. The lack of
definition of what constitutes a crisis is a key issue for the Bill given this criterion
limits eligibility for the program and is counter to the Productivity
Commission’s recommendation.
Limited to veterans
aged under 65 years
The Bill will
introduce a new criterion to limit eligibility for the Acute Support Package to
veterans or the family of veterans aged under 65 years of age at the time the
assistance is provided. A similar age limit applies in practice to the current
Package as incapacity payments under the MRCA can only be paid up to Age
Pension qualifying age (currently 66 years and six months but increasing to 67
from 1 July 2023).[26] The age limit will target the
support at the families of working-age veterans but it is unclear why 65 years
is used as the limit rather than Age Pension age.
Australian
Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John proposed amendments to the Enhanced Family
Support Bill to remove the age cap on access to the Family Support Package.[27]
Expanded services and greater flexibility
The Bill
provides for services provided under the Acute Support Package to be set out in
legislative instruments. The Bill inserts into the three legislative schemes a
list of the kind of assistance and benefits that may be specified in these
instruments: child care, counselling, household assistance, services to build
capacity, academic support and extra-curricular support for children. The
Explanatory Memorandum states that services to build capacity could include financial
literacy, relationship skills, cooking lessons and mental health first aid.[28]
The current
scheme caps the level of assistance available in different ways depending on
the kind of service (either a monetary limit or a limit to a certain number of
sessions of counselling). New caps or limits will be included in a legislative
instrument, but the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Matt Keogh stated that a
total cap will apply rather than specific limits for different categories of
assistance.[29] This will provide flexibility
to families in choosing the supports they need.
Under the
current scheme, the following limits apply:
- child care assistance of up to $10,000 per
financial year for each child under school age, and up to $5,000 per financial
year for each primary-school aged child
- access to up to four counselling sessions
per year per family group for five years
- for widows, access to four counselling
sessions per calendar year for the two years following the veteran’s death
- for widows, household services worth up to
$482.50 per week for the two years following the veteran’s death.[30]
Minister Keogh
stated in his second reading speech that under the enhanced Package up to
$7,500 worth of supports could be accessed in the first year and $5,000 in the
second year. Any kind of approved service or assistance could be accessed
through the Package up to these limits. Families with children will be able to
access a further $10,000 a year for each child under school age and $5,000 for
each child at primary school age but these additional amounts will not have to
be used for child care.[31]
Widowed
partners would be able to access up to $27,835 per year for two years following
the date their claim is accepted (rather than date of death) as well as the
additional $10,000/$5,000 amounts for children until those children reach high
school-age.[32]
Numbers affected
According to Minister Keogh, 49 widowed partners and their
families and 120 veterans and their families have been assisted by the Family
Support Package since it commenced in 2018. The Minister stated that
approximately 430 families and 450 widowed partners will benefit from the
expanded Acute Support Package in its first year.[33]
Key provisions
Amendments
to the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004
Items 3 and 4 substitute the word ‘Family’ with ‘Acute’
at the headings of Chapter 5A and Part 1 of Chapter 5A of the MRCA,
respectively. Chapter 5A is currently titled ‘Family and employment support’
and Part 1 of that Chapter allows for the provision of the Family Support
Program.
Item 5 removes a reference to the warlike service
requirement at the simplified outline of Part 1 at section 268A.
Item 6 repeals and replaces section 268B to
set out the main provisions for the Acute Support Package. The proposed section
provides for the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission to make a
legislative instrument for granting an acute support package of
assistance and benefits to eligible individuals. Proposed subsections
268B(2)–268(6) set out eligibility criteria that will apply:
- for
members or former members of the Australian Defence Force (ADF):
- the
person is under 65 years at the time their eligibility for a package is
determined
- the
person is receiving compensation for an incapacity (for service-related
injuries or illnesses) or a Special Rate Disability Pension under the MRCA
- the
Commission is satisfied the person, or a related person, is experiencing or is
at risk of experiencing a crisis
- for
related persons of a member or former member of the ADF:
- the
member or former member is under 65 years of age at the time eligibility for a
package is determined
- the
member or former member is receiving compensation for an incapacity or a
Special Rate Disability Pension under the MRCA
- the
Commission is satisfied the person is experiencing or is risk of experiencing a
crisis
- for
a wholly dependent partner of a deceased member of the ADF:
- the
partner is under 65 years of age at the time their eligibility for a package is
determined
- the
deceased member’s death occurred no more than 2 years before the partner’s
eligibility for a package is determined
- the
deceased member’s death was related to their service or the Commission is
satisfied their death was a suicide related to their service
- for
former partners of a member or former member of the ADF:
- the
former partner is under 65 years of age at the time eligibility for a package
is determined
- the
person ceased being the member’s or former member’s partner within the previous
12 months OR a child (aged under 18 years) of the member or former member lives
with the person
- the
Commission is satisfied the person is experiencing or is at risk of
experiencing a crisis.
Related person is already defined at subsection 15(2) of
the MRCA and includes partners, parents/step-parents, grandparents,
children and step-children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters and half-brothers
and half-sisters, those for whom the member stands in the position of a parent,
and those who stand in the position of a parent to the member.
Proposed subsection 268B(7) provides for the
Commission’s legislative instrument to set out additional eligibility criteria,
the kinds of assistance that may be granted, conditions, limits (such as caps
on the total amount of assistance available), and arrangements for the payment
of assistance or benefits.
Item 7 adds section 345B which means that
the reconsideration and review provisions in Chapter 8 of the MRCA apply
to decisions by the Commission under an instrument made under section 268B
(regarding acute support packages) as if references to a ‘claimant’ in Chapter
8 refer to the person to whom an Acute Support Package decision relates and as
if references to ‘a claim’ were omitted (as there are no specific claim
requirements or procedures set out in section 268B). The proposed amendments
will mean that decisions by the Commission in relation to acute support
packages are subject to the merits review process including reviews by the
Veterans’ Review Board where requested by the person to whom the package
related, or Commission-initiated reconsiderations.[34]
Part 3 of Chapter 11 of the MRCA sets out
provisions for the recovery of overpayments, including that certain amounts are
recoverable via a court process as a debt due to the Commonwealth or via a
deduction from another amount payable to the person under the MRCA. Item
8 inserts proposed paragraph 415(1)(aa) so that amounts paid as part
of an acute support package are subject to the recovery provisions where the
amount was paid as a result of:
- a
false or misleading statement or representation or
- a
failure or omission to comply with the Act or an instrument made under proposed
section 268B.
Amendments
to the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act
1988
Items 10–15 propose similar amendments to the DRCA
as are proposed for the MRCA to provide for acute support packages to be
available to those whose service is covered under the DRCA and their
relatives. The amendments also provide for a legislative instrument to be made
for granting acute support packages and the eligibility criteria are essentially
the same as those set out above in relation to the MRCA amendments.
Eligible compensation payments will be those paid under Division 3 of Part II
of the DRCA, which covers injuries resulting in incapacity for work.
Amendments
to the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986
Item 16 adds proposed paragraph 5H(8)(zze) to
the VEA which provides for payments made as part of an acute support
package under the VEA, MRCA or DRCA to be exempt income
for the purposes of the income tests that apply to some VEA payments
(such as the Service Pension).
Items 17–24 propose similar amendments to the VEA
as are proposed for the DRCA and MRCA to provide for acute
support packages to be available to those whose service is covered under the VEA
and their relatives. The amendments also provide
for a legislative instrument to be made for granting acute support packages and
the eligibility criteria are essentially the same as those set out above in relation
to the MRCA amendments. Eligible compensation payments will be a
Disability Pension under section 23, 24 or 25 of the VEA or the Veteran
Payment.
Existing provisions under
section 205 of the VEA will cover recovery of overpayments under an
Acute Support Package where the overpayment was:
- in
consequence of a false or misleading statement or representation or
- a
failure or omission to comply with the VEA or an instrument made under
the Act.[35]
Members, Senators and
Parliamentary staff can obtain further information from the
Parliamentary Library on (02) 6277 2500.
[1]. Australian Parliament, Veterans’
Affairs Legislation Amendment (Enhanced Family Support) Bill 2022 homepage.
[2]. Michael
Klapdor, ‘Veterans’
Affairs Legislation Amendment (Enhanced Family Support) Bill 2022’, FlagPost
(blog), Parliamentary Library, 24 March 2022.
[3]. Department
of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA), ‘6.5.3
Family Support Package’, Rehabilitation Policy Library, DVA website,
17 September 2018.
[4]. DVA,
‘6.5.3
Family Support Package’, Rehabilitation Policy Library; Senate
Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee, The
Constant Battle: Suicide by Veterans, August 2017, 130.
[5]. Senate
Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee, The
Constant Battle: Suicide by Veterans, 130.
[6]. DVA,
‘Determinations
of Warlike Service’, Compensation and Support Policy Library, DVA
website. All operations that have been declared warlike for the purposes of the
Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 are listed in the Military
Rehabilitation and Compensation (Warlike Service) Determination 2019.
[7]. DVA, ‘6.5.3.1
Eligibility for Family Support Package’, Rehabilitation Policy Library,
DVA website, 17 September 2018.
[8]. ‘Family
Support Package for widowed partners’, DVA website.
[9]. ‘Family
Support Package for widowed partners’, DVA website.
[10]. Australian
Government, Budget
Measures: Budget Paper No. 2: 2021–22, 195.
[11]. DVA,
Enhanced
Family Support Package, Budget 2021–22 Information Sheet, (Canberra:
DVA, 2021).
[12]. Australian
Government, Budget
Measures: Budget Paper No. 2: 2021–22, 195.
[13]. Australian
Government, Budget
Measures: Budget Paper No. 2: 2022–23, 176; DVA, Enhanced
Family Support Package, Budget 2022–23 Information Sheet, (Canberra:
DVA, 2022).
[14]. Explanatory
Memorandum, Veterans’ Affairs Legislation Amendment (Enhanced Family
Support) Bill 2022, iv; Explanatory
Memorandum, Defence, Veterans’ and Families’ Acute Support Package Bill
2022, iv.
[15]. DVA,
Enhanced
Family Support Package, Budget 2021–22 Information Sheet and DVA, Enhanced
Family Support Package, Budget 2022–23 Information Sheet.
[16]. Productivity
Commission (PC), A
Better Way to Support Veterans: Inquiry Report, vol. 2, (Canberra: PC,
27 June 2019), 840.
[17]. Senate
Standing Committee for the Selection of Bills, Report,
3, 2022, 4 August 2022: 3.
[18]. Senate
Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills, Scrutiny
Digest, 2, 2022, 18 March 2022: 60.
[19]. Jordon
Steele-John, Proposed
amendments to the Veterans’ Affairs Legislation Amendment (Enhanced Family
Support) Bill 2022, Sheet 1572, 28 March 2022.
[20]. Explanatory
Memorandum, Defence, Veterans’ and Families’ Acute Support Package Bill
2022, iv.
[21]. The
Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights can be found at page v of the
Explanatory Memorandum to the Bill. Explanatory
Memorandum, Defence, Veterans’ and Families’ Acute Support Package Bill
2022, v–viii.
[22]. Parliamentary
Joint Committee on Human Rights, Human
Rights Scrutiny Report, 2, 2022, 25 March 2022: 65–66.
[23]. Section 8, Military
Rehabilitation and Compensation (Family Support) Instrument (No.2) 2018.
[24]. PC,
A
Better Way to Support Veterans: Inquiry Report, vol. 2, (Canberra: PC,
27 June 2019), 840.
[25]. Matt
Keogh, Second
Reading Speech: Defence, Veterans' and Families' Acute Support Package Bill
2022, House of Representatives, Debates, 3 August 2022, 13.
[26]. ‘How
we calculate incapacity payments’, DVA; DSS, ‘3.4.1.10
Qualification for Age’, Social Security Guide, version 1.297,
released 15 August 2022, DSS, 22 March 2021.
[27]. Jordon
Steele-John, Proposed
amendments to the Veterans’ Affairs Legislation Amendment (Enhanced Family
Support) Bill 2022, Sheet 1572, 28 March 2022.
[28]. Explanatory
Memorandum, Defence, Veterans’ and Families’ Acute Support Package Bill
2022, 4.
[29]. Matt
Keogh, Second
Reading Speech: Defence, Veterans' and Families' Acute Support Package Bill
2022, House of Representatives, Debates, 3 August 2022, 13.
[30]. Sections
11, 12, 16, 17 and 18 of the Military
Rehabilitation and Compensation (Family Support) Instrument (No.2) 2018.
[31]. Matt
Keogh, Second
Reading Speech: Defence, Veterans' and Families' Acute Support Package Bill
2022, House of Representatives, Debates, 3 August 2022, 13.
[32]. Matt
Keogh, Second
Reading Speech: Defence, Veterans' and Families' Acute Support Package Bill
2022, House of Representatives, Debates, 3 August 2022, 13.
[33]. Matt
Keogh, Second
Reading Speech: Defence, Veterans' and Families' Acute Support Package Bill
2022, House of Representatives, Debates, 3 August 2022, 13.
[34]. See
Appeals, DVA,
for further information on the review and reconsideration process.
[35]. Section
205, Veterans’
Entitlements Act 1986.
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