ASAC | What is TIP?

ADVOCACY TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

The advocacy training and development program, or atdp for short, is the next evolution of the training and information program and replaces tip. The atdp has been developed as a partnership between the department of veterans’ affairs (dva), ex-service organisations (esos) and the department of defence.

The vision of the ATDP is to train and develop selected practitioners to provide high quality advocacy services to current and former australian defence force members and their dependents, covering Rehabilitation, Compensation, Appeals and Welfare.

What WAs TIP?

The Training & Information Program provides training and resources for all accredited practitioners in the veteran community, so they in turn can help their fellow veterans and their dependants to obtain benefits through the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA).

There are three courses covered by TIP – pension officer, welfare officer, and advocate courses. Pension officer courses provide participants with information relating to repatriation benefits, as well as details of how claims and applications are determined. Welfare officer courses on the other hand provide information in relation to issues of veterans’ health, housing and other community services available outside of compensation and Military Compensation. There has been a focus over recent years on refresher courses to update experienced practitioners on developments in legislation, policy and procedures relevant to claims and appeals.

TIP also runs courses on advocacy. These are designed to assist the more experienced ESO practitioner in preparing cases for review before the Veterans’ Review Board (VRB) and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). Participants for these more advanced level courses are required to demonstrate that they have had suitable experience in this area and have completed prerequisite TIP courses.