/

/

Part Part 5 - Motor Accidents (Liabilities and Compensation) Regulations 2020 - Disability allowances | Zoe

TASIn ForceRegulation

Motor Accidents (Liabilities and Compensation) Regulations 2020

Part 5Disability allowances

Start here

Get a plain-English read of Part 5

Turn the raw legal text into a practical explanation grounded in Motor Accidents (Liabilities and Compensation) Regulations 2020.

Ask Zoe about this section View in full context

Part 5 Disability allowances

1. Interpretation of Part

(1) For the purposes of this Part –

(a) the holding of an office of profit is taken to constitute employment; and

(b) in relation to any such office, a reference in this Part to anything done by an employer is to be construed as including a reference to anything done in relation to that office by a person having authority in relation to that office to exercise the powers ordinarily exercisable by a person in relation to other persons in that person's employment.

(2) In this Part, a reference to remuneration is to be construed as a reference to an emolument of any kind.

(3) In this Part –

earnings, in respect of a person who has suffered personal injury, does not include an amount that is required to be paid in respect of the person by the person's employer –

(a) as a contribution to a superannuation fund in accordance with the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 of the Commonwealth; or

(b) to a defined benefits scheme of a superannuation fund.

2. Types of disability allowances

(1) In accordance with this Part, periodical allowances are payable as disability allowances to any person who suffers personal injuries resulting directly from a motor accident.

(2) A disability allowance may be –

(a) an employed person's allowance; or

(b) a self-employed person's replacement allowance; or

(c) a housekeeping allowance.

(3) Unless provided to the contrary in this Part, a person is not entitled to both an employed person's allowance and a self-employed person's replacement allowance.

3. Employed person’s allowance

(1) For the purposes of this clause –

prescribed period means a period of 156 weeks beginning at the expiration of the period referred to in subclause (4)(a) .

(2) A person who suffers personal injury is entitled to an employed person's allowance if, at the time of the motor accident –

(a) the injured person was engaged in employment or an occupation for remuneration or profit; or

(b) the injured person was travelling directly from his or her place of residence to the place at which, upon arrival at the end of the journey in the course of which the accident occurred, he or she was to take up employment or an occupation for remuneration or profit; or

(c) the injured person –

(i) was, on the day of the accident, at least 15 years old or exempt from the requirement to attend school under a law of the State; and

(ii) had been engaged in employment or an occupation for remuneration or profit for a total period of not less than 26 weeks in the 12 months immediately preceding the day of the accident; and

(iii) was actively seeking employment through all avenues reasonably available to him or her, or was certified by a medical practitioner as unfit for work due to injury or illness.

(3) For the purposes of subclause (2) , a person engaged in employment or an occupation is to be treated as continuing to be so engaged notwithstanding the person's temporary absence, with leave of his or her employer or otherwise, or the person's temporary standing down from employment by his or her employer.

(4) An employed person's allowance is payable –

(a) for such periods, falling within the period of 104 weeks beginning on the day of the motor accident, during which the injured person is wholly disabled from engaging in his or her usual employment or occupation as a consequence of the injury; and

(b) for such other periods, falling within the prescribed period, during which the injured person is, by reason of the injury, wholly disabled from engaging in any employment or occupation for which he or she would otherwise be reasonably suited by education, training, experience or ability.

(5) If the average weekly earnings of the injured person exceed $400 per week, the employed person's allowance is payable at the lesser of the following rates:

(a) 80% of his or her average weekly earnings;

(b) 3 times the adult average weekly earnings as last published before the motor accident occurred.

(6) If, at the time of the motor accident, the injured person's average weekly earnings did not exceed $400 per week, whether or not the person was a dependant of another person, the lesser of the following amounts is payable weekly as the employed person's allowance:

(a) $320;

(b) the injured person's average weekly earnings.

(7) If, in respect of any period during which an employed person's allowance would, apart from this subclause, be payable to a person, that person receives remuneration or profit from any employment or occupation –

(a) the amount of that allowance is to be reduced by the amount of that remuneration or profit; and

(b) if the amount of that remuneration or profit exceeds the amount of the allowance, the allowance is not payable in respect of that period.

4. Self-employed person's replacement allowance

(1) For the purposes of this clause –

business includes any profession, trade, employment, vocation and calling, but does not include an occupation as an employee;

prescribed period means a period of 156 weeks beginning at the expiration of the period referred to in subclause (3)(a) .

(2) A person who suffers personal injury is entitled to a self-employed person's replacement allowance if –

(a) at the time of the motor accident he or she was carrying on a business for profit; and

(b) he or she is disabled from conducting that business as a result of the injury and, to ensure that the business is carried on during the period in which he or she is so disabled, arrangements are made for another person to receive remuneration, gratuity or reward to conduct that business.

(3) A self-employed person's replacement allowance is payable –

(a) for such periods, falling within the period of 104 weeks beginning on the day of the motor accident, during which the injured person is wholly disabled from conducting his or her business as a result of the injury and arrangements are made for another person to receive remuneration, gratuity or reward to conduct that business; and

(b) for such other periods, falling within the prescribed period, during which the injured person is, by reason of the injury, wholly disabled from engaging in any employment or occupation for which he or she would otherwise be reasonably suited by education, training, experience or ability.

(4) Subject to subclause (5) , a self-employed person's replacement allowance is payable at the lesser of the following rates:

(a) 80% of any remuneration, gratuity or reward paid to a person to carry on a self-employed person's business;

(b) 3 times the adult average weekly earnings as last published before the motor accident occurred.

(5) If a self-employed person returns to his or her business in a reduced capacity, the amount of self-employed person's replacement allowance payable to a person to carry on the self-employed person's business is to be reduced by the value of the hours being worked by the self-employed person, as determined by the Board.