Homebase for the Veteran Community in Townsville

The majority of DVA Rehabilitation & Compensation (R&C) services are being delivered to veterans and their dependents within DVA’s time based performance targets, however a minority of claims take an excessively long period to process due to inefficient handling. These delays can have significant impacts for these veterans.

The audit identified weaknesses in DVA’s business systems and processes, which do not adequately support the efficient delivery of services. In particular, DVA should improve the structure and consistency of workflow management for R&C claims, and review its highly segmented approach to processing claims under the various elements of applicable legislation. DVA’s focus on monitoring the median and the average time taken to process (TTTP) across the population of claims does not provide a sufficiently complete picture of performance, and does not address critical reputational and client welfare risks.

For claims with a high TTTP, the audit identified that this stemmed from excessive time associated with ‘inactivity’ (delays in the actioning of a claim despite the presence of required information) and medical reviews. DVA should improve its oversight of the progress of individual claims through the processing lifecycle, and its management of medical service provision. The monitoring and reporting of claims is not effective in alerting management to those which are at risk of taking excessive time to process.