TAC reforms boost benefits, certainty and sustainability

17 Oct 2013

The Victorian Coalition Government has today announced a package of reforms to the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) Scheme which will substantially boost a range of benefits for Victorians injured in transport accidents, while also ensuring consistency and sustainability in the scheme.

Legislation has been introduced to Parliament to amend the Transport Accident Act 1986 to give effect to the package.

"These important initiatives would increase support to Victorians injured in transport accidents, while ensuring the TAC Scheme is managed consistently and sustainably," Assistant Treasurer Gordon Rich-Phillips said.

Following consultation between the TAC and the Department of Health, the cap on counselling for family members of Victorians injured in a transport accident will increase from $5,870 to $15,000 per claim.

To assist injured Victorians to recover from transport accidents, the Legislation also:

• extends the period to claim for travel expenses from 12 weeks immediately following the accident to 24 weeks throughout the life of a claim;
• extends the travel expense entitlement of students to cover attendance at university, TAFE, or a registered training organisation, as well as school as is currently the case;
• increases the cap on individual funding agreement from $200 to $1,000 for the purchase of aids, appliances and apparatus; and · increases family travel and accommodation expenses from $7,310 to $10,000 per claim.

In the tragic event of a death from a transport accident, the entitlement of surviving family for funeral expenses will be increased from around $10,600 to $14,800 and expanded to cover all funeral related expenses. 

Access to common law for Victorians who suffer serious injury in a transport accident is an important element of the scheme, and the legislation continues current entitlements through both the 'impairment' and the 'narrative' gateways.

"The Coalition Government is committed to maintaining access to common law as an important part of the TAC scheme," Mr Rich-Phillips said. The Legislative package provides greater clarity around the definition of severe mental injury.

For the first time there will be clinical criteria of what constitutes a severe long-term mental or severe long-term behavioural disturbance or disorder for the purpose of defining serious injury.

"The TAC has worked closely with the Chief Psychiatrist to develop a definition of severe mental injury which is consistent with the views of modern medicine," Mr Rich-Phillips said.

"Defining severe mental injury will encourage people to access treatment from a medical specialist for their mental injuries and also ensure that mental injury claims are treated consistently within the TAC scheme."

The Legislative package also provides for the making of a fixed costs order in respect of legal costs associated with TAC common law claims. This follows the successful introduction by the previous Labor Government of a fixed cost model for legal costs in the Victorian WorkCover Authority (VWA) Scheme.

"The TAC spends around $50 million per year on plaintiff legal costs. The common law scheme exists to compensate accident victims, not lawyers, so it is important that legal costs are kept under control," Mr Rich-Phillips said.

"This reform builds on a similar reform successfully introduced at WorkCover by the Labor Government in 2010."

The reform package is also intended to reduce the number of medico-legal examinations that a client needs to attend by requiring agreement between the TAC and client before reports are funded.

The TAC scheme is funded through premiums paid by motorists, with the average two car family paying more than $900 for the TAC scheme each year.

"Victorians can be rightly proud of the work the TAC does in supporting accident victims," Mr Rich-Phillips said.

"This legislation will ensure that the TAC continues to provide relevant and appropriate support to victims, preserves their common law entitlements, and helps to keep the cost of the scheme under control for Victorian motorists." 

The Legislation also contains a number of other administrative changes and is available at www.legislation.vic.gov.au.