Understanding your Workers Compensation insurance cover
What’s covered?
If one of your employees is injured or becomes unwell because of their job, your Workers Compensation insurance will cover:
- Weekly payments (also known as weekly benefits) while they can’t work
- Medical and hospital bills
- Rehabilitation services to help them recover
- Replacing personal items damaged at work
- A lump sum payment for death or permanent impairment
How long does a policy last?
All policies last for 12 months unless you ask for a shorter term. Your policy starts as soon as you contact us.
If you’re a small employer, your policy will usually run for 11 to 12 months from the day you take it out. This is because the policy must align with the end of a month.
Your responsibilities as an employer
By law, most employers in NSW must have a Workers Compensation policy. You also need to display a summary of Workers Compensation legislation in your workplace. This information should include how a worker tells you about an injury, and how they can make a claim. For more information on what you need to do as an employer, use SIRA’s If you get injured at work poster or visit the SIRA website.
You also need to keep icare updated about any business changes that might change your policy. This includes keeping accurate records of all information about wages for at least five years. Every year, you need to declare the wages your business pays to employees. Find out more about wage declarations.
Return to work program
All employers must have a return-to-work program. This helps people with injury feel like they can stay active and get better while keeping costs down from taking time off from work. There are different types of employers, and they have different return-to-work needs. However, what’s needed for all employers, is a person in the business to be the return-to-work coordinator. Find out more about return-to-work on SIRA’s website.
If a worker is injured or ill
If your employee is injured or becomes ill at work, you need to:
- Let your Claims Service Provider (CSP) know within 48 hours. Your Claims Service Provider is listed on your Certificate of Currency, which you received when you took out your policy. If you don’t get in touch with your CSP within five days, you may be charged an excess (equal to one week’s compensation payments).
- Support your worker’s recovery and return to work.
- Record the injury on a register of injuries. The register should include the following details:
- Their name, address, age and job at the time of injury
- The workplace and type of injury
- The time, date and cause of injury
To help you record these details, you can use the State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) Register of injuries/illness template on the NSW SafeWork website. Keeping a register of injuries is important because it allows your employees to raise safety issues and helps you create a safer workplace.
Find out more about how to support a worker with injury.
Workers who travel interstate or overseas
Under a Workers Compensation policy, employees who are normally covered under your Worker’s Compensation policy are still covered for up to six months when they’re temporarily interstate or overseas for work.
In addition to their obligations in NSW, employees must also follow the Worker’s Compensation insurance requirements of the country or state they’ll be temporarily working in.
Find out more about the types of payments made to employees travelling for work in the Wages Definition Manual and on the SIRA website