The Scheme for Compensation for Detriment caused by Defective Administration (CDDA) is how a Commonwealth agency can pay you when it has no legal liability but a moral one: its administration was defective, and that defect caused you loss. It is discretionary. Winning the “they stuffed up” argument does not automatically produce a cheque.
What counts as defective administration
RMG 409 describes defective administration in four useful buckets. Map every incident on your file to one of them, with dates and names.
- 1A specific and unreasonable lapse in following existing procedures that would normally have applied (for example, an expedition flag that was never actioned).
- 2A failure to institute or to adjust procedures that were appropriate in the circumstances (for example, no workable process for “acute” support, or no disability adjustment in how the department communicates with you).
- 3Giving advice that was, in all the circumstances, incorrect or ambiguous.
- 4Failing to give advice that was in the agency’s power to give, or that it was reasonably capable of obtaining.
Detriment has to be caused by the defect
Three kinds: personal injury (including mental injury), pure economic loss, and property damage. You need a calculation, how you worked it out, and what you did to contain the loss. “I had a bad year” is not a quantum. Unpaid invoices while an ASP request sat idle, extra medical costs after a particular administrative event, interest on a delayed lump, a specific period of lost earnings because a decision was late — those can be costed.
How to put a CDDA application together
Step 1
Timeline
Every relevant date: lodgement, flags, letters, phone calls, welfare checks, SPOC imposition, decisions, complaints. Attach the documents.
Step 2
Map to RMG 409
For each incident: which paragraph, why it was defective (not just disappointing), and who owned the file.
Step 3
Causation
One paragraph per loss: but for this administrative failure, this loss would not have happened. Medical opinion helps for mental injury.
Step 4
Quantum table
Line items, dates, amounts, evidence. Do not invent a round number. If you cannot cost a head of loss, say so and ask them to assess it.
Step 5
Lodge with DVA
The agency that caused the detriment investigates it. Keep a copy. If they stall, the Ombudsman can look at how the CDDA claim itself is being handled.
A lump-sum PI payment received later does not automatically wipe a hardship or delay CDDA. They are different losses. DVA may argue otherwise — answer that the PI is the statutory entitlement for impairment, not compensation for the department taking a year to process a flagged hardship request.