Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

VETERANS' ENTITLEMENTS ACT 1986 - SECT 55

             (1)  Subject to subsection (3), an instalment of a service pension or income support supplement is not payable to a person in respect of a day on which the person is:

                     (a)  in gaol; or

                     (b)  undergoing psychiatric confinement because the person has been charged with an offence.

Note:          While an instalment is not payable to a person, the person is not entitled to benefits under Division 12 because the person is not receiving a service pension or income support supplement unless a determination is in force under subsection 53D(3), 55A(1) or 85(8).

             (3)  Subsection (1) does not apply to so much of an instalment as has been redirected under a direction given under section 55A.

Meaning of in gaol

             (4)  For the purposes of this Act, a person is in gaol if:

                     (a)  the person is being lawfully detained (in prison or elsewhere) while under sentence for conviction of an offence and not on release on parole or licence; or

                     (b)  the person is undergoing a period of custody pending trial or sentencing for an offence.

Meaning of psychiatric confinement

             (5)  Subject to subsection (6), psychiatric confinement in relation to a person includes confinement in:

                     (a)  a psychiatric section of a hospital; and

                     (b)  any other place where persons with psychiatric disabilities are, from time to time, confined.

             (6)  The confinement of a person in a psychiatric institution during a period when the person is undertaking a course of rehabilitation is not to be taken to be psychiatric confinement .