State Service (Disability Benefits) Act [Chapter 16:05]

 

Chapter 16:05

State Service (Disability Benefits) Act

Acts 22/1971, 57/1972 (s. 26), 11/1973 (s. 15), 14/1973 (s. 49), 4/1974 (Part II), 24/1975 (s. 7), 42/1976 (s. 28),

42/1977 (s. 7), 24/1987; R.G.Ns. 415/1972, 1193/1974, 251/1975, 1135/1975, 244/1976, 468/1978 (ss. 6 and 7),

899/1978 (s. 5), 6/2000 (s. 151); S.I.s 903/1979, 179/1981, 253/1982, 49/1985, 193/1985, 340/1991, 119/1992, 381/1993.

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

PART I

PRELIMINARY Section

1. Short title.

PART II

BENEFITS ANDAPPLICATION OFACT

3. Application of Act.
4. Entitlement to benefits under this Act.
5. Time within which compensation to be claimed.
6. Time within which action at common law to be taken and court to take into account compensation paid or payable.
7. Remedies against both State and third party.

PART III

BOARDS

8. Disablement Benefits Board.
9. Functions and powers of Board.
10. Disablement Benefits Appeal Board.
11. Functions and powers of Appeal Board.
12. Appeals to Appeal Board.
13. Decision of Appeal Board.

PART IV

COMPENSATION FORDISABLEMENT

14. Compensatory sick leave and leave pay.
15. Assessment of degree of disablement.
16. Disablement pension.
17. Date of accrual of disablement pension.
18. Commutation of disablement pension.
19. Disabled person to submit to medical examination and treatment.
20. Special medical board.
21. Medical expenses.
22. Widow’s pension.
23. Children’s pension.
24. Pension for dependant other than widow or child.
25. Supplementary benefits payable on death of deceased person.
26. Vocational training.
27. Funeral expenses.
28. Travelling and subsistence allowances.
29. Benefit where disabled person sustains financial loss.
30. Constant attendance allowance.
31. Clothing allowance.
32. Children’s allowances.
33. Educational allowance.

PART V

GENERAL

34. Payment of reduced compensation to elderly or infirm members.
35. Benefits payable under insurance policy effected by State.
36. Assessment of earnings.
37. Application of Act to certain persons.
38. Polygamous wives.
39. Payment of allowances and pensions in respect of step-children.
40. Widower of deceased person.
41. Compensation not to be pledged or ceded.
42. Insolvency of pensioner.
43. Proof of age, etc.
44. Compensation, remuneration or allowances to be paid from Consolidated Revenue Fund.
45. Regulatory powers.

SCHEDULES

First Schedule: Degree of Disablement.

Second Schedule: Table for Calculating Commutation of Pension.

Third Schedule: Children’s Pensions or Allowances. Fourth Schedule: Repealed Laws.

AN ACT to provide for the payment of compensation on the death or injury of persons employed by the State arising out of and in the course of official duties; to provide for payment of compensation on the death or injury of any person whilst assisting the Defence Forces, the Police Force or the Prison Service; to establish a Disablement Benefits Board and a Disablement Benefits Appeal Board and to provide for the functions and powers of those Boards; and to provide for other matters connected with or incidental to the foregoing.

[Date of commencement: 1st June, 1971.]

PART I

PRELIMINARY

1    Short title

This Act may be cited as the State Service (Disability Benefits) Act [Chapter 16:05].

                       2    Interpretation

(1) In this Act—

“Appeal Board” means the Disablement Benefits Appeal Board established by section ten;

“appointed day” means the 1st June, 1971;

“Board” means the Disablement Benefits Board established by section eight;

“child”, in relation to a disabled person or deceased person, means an unmarried legitimate or legitimated son or daughter of that person, including a posthumous child, a step-child or a child legally adopted, which son or daughter—

• has not attained the age of nineteen years and is or was at the date of the injury to or death of that person dependent upon him for support; or
• is, in terms of a declaration under subsection (2), a child for the purposes of this Act;

“compensation” means any compensation, allowance or other benefit, including medical aid, which is payable or provided for under this Act;

“deceased person” means a deceased member or former member referred to in subsection (2) of section four in respect of whose death the compensation provided for in this Act is payable;

“Defence Act” means the Defence Act [Chapter 11:02];

“degree of disablement” means the degree of disablement due to an injury expressed as a percentage of total disablement which shall be taken as one hundred per centum;

“dental practitioner” means a person who is registered under the Health Professions Act [Chapter 27:19] as a dental practitioner;

“dependant”, in relation to a deceased person, means— (a)       a child or widow of that deceased person; or

(b) any person not referred to in paragraph (a) who was wholly or partly maintained by that deceased person at the date of his death or of the injury which caused his death and for a reasonable period before that date;

“disabled person” means a member or former member referred to in subsection (1) of section four in respect of whose disablement the compensation provided for in this Act is payable;

“disablement” means disablement for employment or permanent injury or disfigurement;

“disablement pension” means a pension payable in terms of section sixteen;

“earnings”, in relation to a disabled person or a deceased person, means the annual rate of earnings of that person as assessed by the Board in terms of section thirty-six;

“emoluments”, in relation to a member or former member— (a)            who sustains an injury as a result of—

• his being a member of the Police Force as defined in section 2 of the Police Act, other than a Regular Force member as defined in that section: or
• his being a member of a Reserve Force as defined in subsection (1) of section 2 of the

Defence Act; means the income, either real or potential, including the value of free quarters, which is assessed by the Board as representing the income of that person immediately prior to his injury from his employment otherwise than with the Police Force or the Defence Forces, as the case may be;

• not referred to in paragraph (a) who is employed on an hourly or daily basis, means the aggregate of fifty-two times the weekly rate of his salary or wages plus, where this is provided for in his conditions of service, the annual value of any food and quarters supplied to him in addition to his pay;
• not referred to in paragraph (a) or (b), means the annual rate of his salary plus, where this is provided for in his conditions of service, the annual value of any quarters, fuel or light which is provided free or any allowance in lieu thereof which is paid to him in addition to his salary:

Provided that if, in the case of a person to whom paragraph (b) or (c) applies, in the opinion of the Board, the application of paragraph (b) or (c), as the case may be, does not equitably reflect the true income of the person concerned because that person is only employed by the State for part of a working day or part of a month or year, as the case may be, the Board may assess the income which in its opinion represents the income of that person immediately prior to his injury which shall be regarded as his emoluments for the purposes of this Act;

“injury”, in relation to a member or former member, means ill-health, physical or mental incapacity or personal injury;

“medical board” means a board composed of medical practitioners appointed and constituted from time to time by the Secretary of the Ministry responsible for health request of the Minister for the purpose of carrying out any functions imposed under this Act on a medical board;

“medical practitioner” means a person who is registered under the Health Professions Act [Chapter 27:19] as a medical practitioner;

“member” means a person who is employed by the State on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or annual rate of pay and includes a member of a uniformed force, whether or not he is receiving payment for his services in that force;

“Minister” means the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare or any other Minister to whom the President may, from time to time, assign the administration of this Act;

“occupation” includes a profession, calling or trade;

“pension” means an annual pension payable during the lifetime of the recipient unless, in terms of this Act, it is payable for a shorter period;

“Police Act” means the Police Act [Chapter 11:10];

“special medical board” means a special medical board appointed in terms of section twenty;

“uniformed force” means—

• the Police Force as defined in section 2 of the Police Act; or
• the Defence Forces as defined in subsection (1) of section 2 of the Defence Act; (c) the Prison Service.

(2) The Board may declare any unmarried person who—

• is an apprentice or articled clerk or otherwise undergoing training and has not attained the age of twenty-one years; or
• is incapable through mental or physical infirmity of earning a livelihood if such infirmity arose before he or she attained the age of nineteen years;

and who is the legitimate or legitimated son or daughter, including a posthumous child, a step-child or a child legally adopted, of a disabled person or a deceased person, to be a child for the purposes of this Act, and such son or daughter shall be regarded for the purposes of this Act as a child of that person until such time as—

• in the case of a person referred to in paragraph (a), he or she attains the age of twenty-one years or ceases to undergo the training, as the case may be; or
• the Board revokes its declaration; whichever is the earlier.

• Any reference in this Act to the date of the injury of a disabled person or deceased person means the date that that person received the injury which caused his disablement or death or the date that the injury first manifested itself, as the case may be:

Provided that, if that date is not established to the satisfaction of the Board, the Board shall, having regard to all the evidence submitted and, if it considers it to be necessary or desirable, after considering the report of a medical board, determine the date of the injury of that person for the purposes of this Act.

• In the case of a member of a uniformed force— (a) if he sustains an injury—
  • in an assault occasioned by his membership of the Force or Service concerned; or
  • while participating in any sport, recreational training, display or competition authorized by the Commissioner of Police, the Commander of the Army or the Commissioner of Prisons, as the case may be;

the injury shall be deemed to have arisen out of and in the course of his official duties;

(b) if he sustains an injury whilst he is on active military service or is in the field engaged on operational military or security force operations, that injury shall be deemed to have arisen out of and in the course of his official duties unless the contrary is shown.

• If a member of the Force as defined in section 2 of the Police Act, other than a special constable as defined in that section, sustains an injury in circumstances indicating that the injury resulted from action which he had taken or could have been expected to have taken in his official capacity in respect of—
• an offence which had just been committed, was being committed or was clearly about to be or liable to be committed; or
• the preservation of life or property; that injury shall be deemed to have arisen out of and in the course of his official duties unless the contrary is shown.
• For the purposes of this Act, an injury of a member or former member shall be deemed to have been aggravated to a material extent arising out of and in the course of his official duties if, where the degree of disablement which would have been applicable had the whole of the condition of the person concerned been caused by

his official duties (hereinafter in this subsection called his full degree of disablement) is—

• less than twenty per centum, the aggravation in his condition constitutes a degree of disablement of five per centum or more which is not less than one-half of his full degree of disablement;
• twenty per centum or more, the aggravation in his condition constitutes a degree of disablement of not less than ten per centum.