Card 03 · Payments and treatment
Weekly payments and medical expenses
An accepted claim can pay part of your lost wages as weekly payments, worked out from what you earned before the injury, and the reasonable cost of treatment. The percentages, the time limits and the caps are set by each scheme’s law, so the same injury can be paid differently in different states.
General information, not legal or financial advice. Figures here are as at October 2026 and are indexed or changed from time to time. Your insurer, and your scheme’s own page, can tell you the rate for your claim.
What a claim can cover
WorkCover Queensland’s list shows the usual shape. Workers’ compensation there may cover lost wages, medical and rehabilitation costs, travel for treatment, a lump sum for permanent impairment, and death benefits and funeral costs. It doesn’t cover damage to your car if you were hurt travelling to or from work, or hospital costs WorkCover hasn’t approved first.
Other schemes describe much the same, with their own extras. In the ACT, payable expenses can include clothing damaged or lost in the accident, wages lost while attending treatment, transport to and from treatment, and accommodation and meals where needed. Comcare lists personal care, help running your household, and buying or repairing equipment you need to recover.
Lump sums for permanent impairment are their own subject, with their own assessments; each scheme explains them on its own site.
How weekly payments are worked out
Every scheme starts from your earnings before the injury, but each measures them its own way. Victoria and NSW call the figure your pre-injury average weekly earnings (PIAWE); in Victoria it is usually the average of your ordinary earnings over the 52 weeks before the injury. Queensland uses your normal weekly earnings over the 12 months before, and Western Australia your average earnings over a 12-month period, leaving out leave without pay.
The weekly amount then usually steps down after a set number of weeks. The table sets the schemes that publish their rates side by side.
| Scheme | First period | Then | Later |
|---|---|---|---|
| VIC | 95% of PIAWE for the first 13 weeks, up to a statutory maximum | 80% of PIAWE from week 14 to week 130; overtime and shift allowances count only for the first 52 weeks | After 130 weeks, only if you meet set criteria; for claims reaching 130 weeks on or after 31 March 2024, you must have both no capacity for any work likely to continue indefinitely and a permanent whole person impairment assessed as 21% or more |
| QLD | Up to 26 weeks: the greater of 85% of normal weekly earnings or the amount under your award or agreement | 26 to 104 weeks: the greater of 75% of normal weekly earnings or 70% of Queensland Ordinary Time Earnings | After two years, depends on your degree of impairment; payments stop after five years of weekly compensation at the latest |
| SA | 100% of average weekly earnings for up to 52 weeks | Then 80% for up to 52 weeks | Different rules for workers assessed as seriously injured |
| WA | Based on pre-injury earnings for the first 26 weeks of payments | Steps down to 85% after 26 weeks, with a safety-net minimum | A limit applies to the total you can receive over the life of the claim |
| ACT | While totally incapacitated, your average pre-injury weekly earnings for the first 26 weeks | After 26 weeks, an amount set by section 41 of the Workers Compensation Act 1951 | Partial incapacity payments can make up the gap if you return on lower earnings |
| NSW | A percentage of PIAWE that changes over set periods, up to a maximum weekly amount that is indexed. Income support is capped at 260 weeks for primary physical injuries, unless the injury results in permanent impairment of more than 20%. For primary psychological injuries notified on or after 1 July 2026, weekly payments stop at 130 weeks for an impairment of 20% or less. At 21% to 24%, a worker may receive an additional 52 weeks at 60% of PIAWE if they meet set conditions; at more than 24%, payments may continue after 130 weeks. | ||
Tasmania and the Northern Territory publish their rates through their own guides; see WorkSafe Tasmania’s payments page and NT WorkSafe.
A worked example, clearly made up
Take a fictional Victorian worker whose PIAWE is $1,000 and who can’t work at all. Using WorkSafe’s rates, 95% of $1,000 is $950 a week for the first 13 weeks, and 80% of $1,000 is $800 a week from week 14. Both figures are under Victoria’s statutory maximum, which WorkSafe gives as $3,000 as at 1 July 2026, indexed annually. If that worker went back part time, the payment would be worked out differently, by taking away some or all of what they now earn.
When the money arrives, and who pays it
- Queensland. Your employer pays the first week’s compensation as their excess, then WorkCover pays on your normal pay cycle if it can. Tax is deducted in the same way as from your wages.
- Western Australia. Once a claim is accepted, your employer pays weekly compensation on its usual pay day, in the usual way.
- Tasmania. Once your employer receives the claim and you are certified unfit for some or all work, weekly payments must start on a set pay day, even if the employer disputes the claim.
- ACT. Your employer must keep paying you until the insurer advises otherwise, and can’t use your personal or annual leave in place of workers’ compensation.
Payments before a decision
Some schemes pay while the claim is still being assessed. In NSW, provisional payments can include up to 12 weeks of weekly payments and up to $10,000 of medical expenses, and the insurer starts them within seven days of being notified unless it has a reasonable excuse. Provisional payments are not available for psychological injuries reported on or after 1 July 2026 due to bullying, racial harassment, sexual harassment or excessive work demands; for those, interim entitlement payments can include weekly payments of 75% of PIAWE for a maximum of 56 days and up to $7,500 of medical and related treatment. In Western Australia, if the insurer defers a claim and hasn’t decided it 28 days after receiving it, provisional payments become payable.
Medical and treatment costs
Schemes pay for reasonable treatment, and some want it approved before it happens. The practical details differ:
- In Victoria you can have treatment paid directly to the provider, or pay first and be reimbursed. Keep your receipts.
- In Western Australia you usually pay and are reimbursed, though invoices can go straight to the insurer. WorkCover WA suggests checking with the insurer before treatment starts.
- In Queensland, hospital costs WorkCover hasn’t pre-approved aren’t covered.
- In Tasmania you must forward an account to your employer within 7 days, who must send it to their insurer within 7 days; your employer must pay it within 28 days of receiving it or tell you in writing why it won’t be paid.
- In South Australia, with prior approval, you can receive up to 13 weeks of weekly payments if you need surgery more than 2 years after the injury. You must apply for approval of that future surgery within 2 years of the injury.
Limits on medical costs
Some schemes cap the total. In Western Australia, medical and health expenses over the life of a claim are limited to 60% of the General Maximum Amount unless the limit is extended. In Tasmania, once your employer receives your claim, they must start paying medical and associated expenses up to $5,000 unless it thinks they are unreasonable or unnecessary.
Leave while you are on compensation
In Victoria, if a claim is rejected, you can use sick or other leave you’ve accrued to cover time off. In Western Australia you keep accruing annual, long service and sick leave, and leave you took before the claim was accepted is reinstated if it is accepted. In Tasmania, if you took sick leave for a period you are back-paid weekly payments for, your employer must re-credit it.
Next card: return to work. If a payment is cut or stopped: when a claim is disputed.