Divorced forced to share disability

ARMY veterans are furious after a Federal Government law means they have to share their disability pension with their ex wives when they get divorced.

The pension is meant to help medically discharged veterans transition into civilian life and compensate for physical injury or mental trauma during their time in the Australian Defence Force.

But News Corp Australia can reveal they are being forced to share it in divorce settlements.

Worse, even if the payment is reduced to zero if they find employment, ex- partners will still receive half of the pension their spouses were receiving at the time of the divorce – all paid for by the taxpayer.

RSL Queensland president Stewart Cameron said he was “gravely concerned” about the effect the pension split was having on “vulnerable veterans”. “An invalidity payment is being treated as a lifetime pension that can be split with a spouse when, in fact, it is regularly reviewed and reduced or removed when the ex- service person recovers or is retrained to work in another field,” he said.

Attorney General George Brandis is considering the issue after it was raised with his office earlier this month, and as crossbench senators pressure the government to intervene.

Peter Burns, who served in the ADF as a diesel mechanic and who received a medical discharge for a back injury and for anxiety, was the first veteran to have the Family Court rule that the invalidity pension was “unsplittable”.

“The court case was so horrific, so much so that I just could not let this happen to anyone else,” Mr Burns said.

“My ex- wife would have got half of my income even though her income was equal to mine and she had the ability to earn more.”

A tribunal last year found the Commonwealth Superan was wro treating nothing

Com keep rec invalidi split, bu around been aff

A spo CommS pension under fa legal ac the proc

Jacqu Brandis to fix” th Xenoph Kakosc support