War Pensions Act [Chapter 11:14]

Chapter 11:14

War Pensions Act

Acts 35/1958, 38/1960, 10/1963, 10/1964, 39/1971 (s. 7), 39/1979 (s. 19), 24/1987 (s. 9), 6/2005 (s. 35). R.G.Ns. 126/1963, 801/1963, 214/1964.

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

PART I

PRELIMINARY

Section

1. Short title.

PART II

ADMINISTRATION

3. Establishment and constitution of Military Pensions Board.
4. Procedure of Board.
5. Powers of Board.
6. Special medical boards.
7. Appeal to Administrative Court.
8. Effect of decision of Administrative Court.
9. Commutation of pensions.

PART III

DISABLEMENT PENSIONS ANDOTHERBENEFITS

10. Disablement pension.
11. Date of accrual of disablement pension.
12. Degree of disablement.
13. Additional pensions.
14. Entitlement to medical treatment.
15. Medical examination.
16. Medical treatment.
17. Travelling expenses and subsistence allowances.
18. Temporary allowance.
19. Cost of maintaining member may be deducted from pension.
20. Family allowance.
21. Allowance in respect of nursing attendance.
22. Allowance for clothing.
23. Reduction of pensions and allowances on account of awards by other states.

PART IV

BENEFITS PAYABLE TO WIDOWS, CHILDREN AND DEPENDANTS

24. Widows’ pension.
25. Pension for separated or divorced wife entitled to maintenance.
26. Certain pensions to cease on remarriage.
27. Pension in respect of child of deceased member.
28. Pension for orphan child.
29. Effect of adoption of child on certain pensions.
30. Pension for parents.
31. Pension for dependants.
32. Reduction of pensions on account of pensions paid by other states.

PART V

CONFIRMATION OF PENSIONS PAID TO CERTAIN MEMBERSOFPERMANENTFORCE

33. Confirmation of certain pensions.

PART VI

APPLICATION OFPROVISIONS OF ACTTOCERTAIN PENSIONERS

34. Certain pensioners deemed to be members.
35. Certain persons deemed to be widows of deceased members.
36. Increase in certain pensions.
37. Certain persons deemed to be dependants of deceased members.

PART VII

GENERAL

38. Provision in regard to claims dealt with under certain repealed laws.
39. Suspension or cancellation of award.
40. Awards not to be pledged or ceded.
41. Benefits to be charged upon Consolidated Revenue Fund.

PART VIII

INCREASE OFPENSIONS 42. Increase of pensions.

SCHEDULE

First Schedule: Commutation of Pensions.

Second Schedule: Pensions to Members for One Hundred per centum Degree of Disablement.

Third Schedule: Pensions to Widows.

Fourth Schedule: Pension for Child of Deceased Member.

Fifth Schedule: Pensions for Dependants of Deceased Member. Sixth Schedule: Certain Persons Deemed to be Members.

AN ACT to make other provision for the payment of pensions and allowances and the grant of other benefits to certain persons who, while rendering military service in His Majesty’s Forces during certain wars, were disabled in consequence thereof, and to the widows and dependants of persons who were killed or died from wounds or injury received or disease or illness contracted while upon or in consequence of such military service; and to provide for certain other matters connected therewith.

[Date of commencement: 17th October, 1958.]

PART I

PRELIMINARY

1    Short title

This Act may be cited as the War Pensions Act [Chapter 11:14].

                       2    Interpretation

(1) In this Act—

“Board” means the Military Pensions Board established under section three;

“child”, in relation to a disabled or deceased member, means—

• an unmarried, legitimate or legitimated son or daughter, including a posthumous child, a stepchild or a child legally adopted, under the age of eighteen years;
• any of the following persons who is declared by the Board to be a child of that member or deceased member for the purposes of this definition—
  • any unmarried daughter until she attains the age of twenty-one years or marries, whichever is the earlier;
  • any son until he attains the age of twenty-one years, who is an apprentice, articled clerk or otherwise undergoing training and receiving only nominal wages or who is being educated at a secondary school, technical school, university or other institution;
  • any son or daughter who is incapable, through mental or physical infirmity, of earning a livelihood, if such infirmity arose before he or she attained the age of eighteen years;

“civil earnings”, in relation to a disabled or deceased member, means such amount, not being more than one thousand seven hundred and twenty dollars, as is fixed by the Board as the annual earnings of the member in his normal trade or occupation;

“deceased member” means a person who was a member and who—

• was killed on military service; or
• died of wounds or injuries received on military service; or
• died of a disease attributable to military service;

“degree of disablement” means the degree of disablement due to a disability determined in terms of section twelve;

“dependant”, in relation to a deceased member, means any person, other than a child, parent, widow or divorced wife of that member, who was wholly or partly maintained by that member up to the time of his death and for a reasonable period before that date;

“disabled member” means a member who is suffering from a disability;

“disability” means ill-health, physical or mental unfitness, physical or mental incapacity or personal injury which—

• has arisen out of and in the course of the discharge of military service or has been aggravated by and in the course of such service, if such disability is not due to the member’s own serious negligence or misconduct;
• under any of the repealed laws, has been deemed to be attributable to military service outside Zimbabwe:

Provided that no increase in the degree of disablement subsequent to discharge from the Forces shall be regarded as attributable to such service unless in fact it was so attributable;

“Forces” means the Defence Forces under the Defence Act [Chapter 111 of 1939] or the Defence Act, 1953 (No. 22 of 1953);

“member” means any male person who under paragraph (b) of section 34 of the Pensions (Defence Forces) Regulations was recognized as a member for the purposes of those regulations and any male person who at any time during the period from the 2nd September, 1939, to the 9th September, 1954, served as a member of the Forces and was discharged before the 10th September, 1954, but does not—

• subject to Part IV, include any European, Asiatic or Coloured person who served as a member of the Permanent Force under the Defence Act [Chapter 111 of 1939] or the Defence Act, 1953 (No. 22 of 1953); or
• include any African who served as a member of the Forces after the 26th June, 1947;

“military service” means military, naval or air service during the period from the 2nd September, 1939, to the 9th September, 1954;

“Minister” means the Minister of Finance or any other Minister to whom the President may, from time to time, assign the administration of this Act;

“Pensions—Africans (Defence Forces) Regulations” means the Pensions—Africans (Defence Forces) Regulations, 1945 (Rhodesia Government Notice No. 183 of 1945);

“Pensions (Defence Forces) Regulations” means the Pensions (Defence Forces) Regulations, 1944 (Rhodesia Government Notice No. 184 of 1944);

“Pensions (Permanent Force Military Service) Regulations” means the Pensions (Permanent Force Military Service) Regulations, 1949 (Rhodesia Government Notice No. 1043 of 1949);

“repealed laws” means the—

• War Pensions Consolidation and Amendment Act [Chapter 119 of 1939];
• Rhodesian Units Pensions Act [Chapter 120 of 1939]; (c) Pensions (Defence Forces) Regulations;
• Pensions Africans (Defence Forces) Regulations;
• Pensions (Permanent Force Military Service) Regulations;

“widow” means

• a widow of a deceased member; or
• in relation to a deceased member who was an African or Asiatic and who left more than one widow, the widow to whom he had been married for the longest period;

but does not, save as otherwise specially provided in this Act, include a widow who was separated, whether by order of court or otherwise from such member at the date of his death.

(2) For the purposes of any award under this Act—

• the rank of a disabled or deceased member shall be the rank held by that member on the date on which he sustained the wound or injury or was first removed from duty on account of the disease which caused his disability or death:

Provided that if, after the date on which he was first removed from duty, the member underwent further military service and during and as a result of such service suffered a material aggravation of his disability, his rank shall be the rank which he held at the date on which he was later removed from duty on account of the disability;

• where a member sustained two or more disabilities to which different ranks would apply under this Act, notwithstanding section twelve, an award shall be made in respect of each disability in accordance with the rankappropriate thereto:

Provided that, in any case where the aggregate of the degrees of disablement exceeds one hundred per centum, the degree of disablement in respect of the lower rank shall be reduced by the difference between one hundred per centum and such aggregate;

• where the rank of a disabled or deceased member is not a military rank mentioned in this Act, his rank shall, for the purposes of this Act, be determined by the Board.