The Department of Veterans’ Affairs is facing a growing backlog of unprocessed compensation claims, leaving injured Australian defence force members waiting months for support and prompting renewed claims the organisation is understaffed and too reliant on labour hire firms.
As the Morrison government faces mounting pressure to hold a royal commission into veterans’ suicides, the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) asserted there was now a backlog of about 25,000 claims under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act (MRCA), which provides support to injured veterans.
The union listed the figure in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry and says it is drawn from internal information shared by its members, who work in the department.
It would represent a further blowout from the estimated backlog of 14,381 “initial liability” claims at 30 September, according to figures provided to Senate estimates by the department.
The department did not respond directly when asked for comment about claimed backlog of 25,000.
Under the MRCA, veterans can receive compensation to cover medical treatment, rehabilitation, income support to replace lost wages due to incapacity, as well as compensation following the death of a member or former member.
Initial liability claims are usually the first step in the compensation process and determine whether a person has a condition linked to their service and eligible for benefits, while people with lasting injuries can also lodge a permanent impairment claim.
The union said the average processing claims for MRCA initial liability claims was 178 days, or nearly six months, while the average wait for MRCA permanent impairment claims was 186 days.
Under legislation, the government’s target for processing MRCA claims is 90 days.
Similarly, department figures showed 514 MRCA initial liability claims had been on hand longer than 12 months, while 32 remained unfinalised after 18 months. There were four that were incomplete after two years.
The department has said it is now prioritising permanent impairment claims and there is no backlog among these claims.
The compensation claims system was widely panned as confusing and “not-for-purpose” in a 2019 Productivity Commission review.
The department secretary, retired major-general Liz Cosson, has previously acknowledged some service people were “waiting for long periods for their claims to be finalised”, amid an increase in claims, and the government provided a further $34.8m supplementary funding to assist with processing the applications in last year’s budget.
Cosson said applications had increased in part because the department had made it easier to apply for compensation through digital improvements to the process.
However, the CPSU said in its submission the “money was allocated to the proportion of the department budget used for veterans’ services and could only be used to employ staff using labour hire contractors”.
The union said 42% of the department’s staff, including more than 50% of claims-processing staff, are contractors or supplied by labour hire companies.
The department spent $82m on the labour hire services with at least 46 different providers, according to the CPSU’s submission.
The CPSU deputy president, Brooke Muscat, linked the long waiting times experienced by defence force personnel to the department’s extensive use of labour hire.
“This is on the government, not the people doing the work – their hands are tied,” she said.
The union also said its members say the department told them last month it plans to increase caseloads for staff, despite some delegates already managing more than 250 compensation claims each.
“Putting extra caseloads on already overloaded claims processing staff doesn’t fix this problem,” Muscat said.
“It won’t even make the stats look better because it cannot fix the delays. It won’t change the lives of our veterans who are still waiting for the care and support they have earned. Tragically, those delays can have deadly consequences.”
It comes as the Morrison government faces calls from within its own government for a royal commission into veterans’ suicides.
Last year, the Victorian coroner urged an audit of DVA’s handling of veterans’ compensation claims, following the suicide of Afghanistan veteran Jesse Bird in 2017.
A motion calling for a royal commission into veterans’ suicide, spearheaded by former soldier and Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie, passed the Senate last week with the support of Coalition senators.
It is expected to be considered by the House of Representatives this week, where it may pass with votes from Labor, the crossbench and potentially some Coalition MPs.
The government had previously announced a national commissioner for defence and veterans’ suicide, which would report to parliament each year, and which it says has the same powers as a royal commission.
Lambie and other veterans’ advocates have repeatedly said the proposal is insufficient and the legislation was withdrawn last year after it failed to win parliamentary support.
A Department of Veterans’ Affairs spokesperson said the government had invested $500m to make it “easier and faster for veterans and their families to access services and support”.
This has “led to an increase in veteran engagement and a more than doubling of claims received since 2017, with 121,853 compensation claims received in 2019-20”, the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson acknowledged there were “unfortunately long wait times” in some compensation streams, but noted “some veterans will be eligible for provisional access to medical treatment for certain conditions and financial support through the veteran payment prior to their claim being finalised”.
“The department has implemented a range of initiatives to respond to the growth in demand and the claims backlog,” the spokesperson said.
“DVA benefits from having a blended workforce of APS and non-APS staff, and the use of labour hire for certain activities allows the department to respond quickly to fluctuations in workload,” the spokesperson said.
For immediate advice and support contact:
Open Arms – Veterans and Families Counselling: 1800 011 046
Defence All-hours Support Line: 1800 628 036
Lifeline: 13 11 14
Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
Mensline: 1300 789 978
