In 2021-22, there were 53,508 compensation claims determined by the Veterans’ Affairs Department, but the backlog of claims that had not even been examined stood at 66,000.
The lag was a major complaint from veterans, who coined the term “delay, deny, die” to describe the system, with the government accused of delaying the start of processing a claim, then denying the initial claim, with the veteran likely to have died before they are finally paid what they are owed.
Chalmers used his October 2022 budget to fund an extra 500 staff, supplementing that with money for an additional 141 public servants in this year’s budget.
The surge in staff has meant that in the last financial year, the backlog was cleared, and compensation claims reached 100,697. Between July and November this financial year, 42,272 claims were determined.
Chalmers said the government was doing the right thing by the nation’s veterans.
“Supporting those who served our country is our responsibility. We’re paying veterans what they’re entitled to,” he said.
“The Liberals think supporting our veterans is ‘wasteful spending’, but we don’t.”
The Coalition has lambasted the government for a blowout in the number of public servants, signalling plans to go to next year’s election promising a deep cut in the public service.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is expected to confirm a larger-than-expected budget deficit this week.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
But the final report of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veterans Suicide, published in September, found the Veterans Affairs’ Department had been “insufficiently resourced to process claims in a timely manner”.
“While the number of claims lodged has increased substantially in recent years, this was not
matched with a commensurate increase in departmental funding and claims processing staff on hand, contributing to a large backlog of unassessed claims and unacceptably long processing times,” it found.
The commission noted the recent improvement in claims assessment, which had cleared the huge backlog left by the Morrison government, was due in part to extra staff, but warned that demand from veterans would continue and require more resources.
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It said changes – including faster processing, expanded support for those who are medically discharged from the defence services, and ongoing funding so that people could access provisional medical treatment – were all needed.
“These reforms would directly improve client experiences and address some risk factors for worsening mental health and suicide,” it found.
Last week, Chalmers revealed the budget update would include almost $2 billion in extra spending for natural disasters that have occurred since May.
These include substantial flood and storm damage across Tasmania and through central Queensland in August, similar incidents in northern NSW in September and substantial storms that hit much of Victoria through October.
This is on top of an extra $3.9 billion on disaster relief that was confirmed in the May budget due to higher-than-expected spending on events dating back to the devastating northern NSW and southern Queensland floods of early 2021 and Tropical Cyclone Jasper, which caused enormous flood damage across far north Queensland in late 2023.
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