ASBESTOS-RELATED CLAIM CONCERNS

The Royal Australian Regiment Corporation (RARC) has recently been made aware of a groundswell of frustration with some decisions by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) that have rejected claims for service-related disease resulting from exposure to asbestos. These concerns are being posted and discussed across a range of social media platforms.

While the RARC supports the existing decision-making processes and pathways of merit review used within DVA, we also acknowledge our responsibility as a national ex-service organisation to advocate robustly on behalf of current and former members of the defence community. In order to do this, we need to be able to approach DVA with credible examples of these concerns to attempt a satisfactory resolution of the current concerns.

We need your help to get these examples. If you wish to support this initiative, the following information is requested to ensure the validity of our evidence;

Your DVA file number,
A copy of the decision, and
A short statement as to your reasons for dissatisfaction with that decision.

This information will allow us to collate your concerns, identify any obvious difficulties in the current system and hopefully provide some positive feedback to assist both claimants and decision-makers in addressing any identified problems.

The following links provide some very important information and will be of great assistance to you. Even if you choose not to participate in our initiative the information should provide some peace of mind for you;