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Amy Nikolovski

- 13 Feb 2017
  • Personal Injury

Changes to Workers’ Compensation

There have been some changes to workers’ compensation, can you explain?

A change occurred to the workers’ compensation laws in South Australia on the 1st July 2015.  We no longer have WorkCover anymore.  The corporation is now called the Return To Work Corporation, with a new act called the Return to Work act.  This came into effect on the 1st July 2015.  What is confusing for people is that even if you were on the scheme before, under WorkCover you are now on the new scheme.  The entitlements that flow from that scheme now apply to people as well.

Is there a change in entitlements?

There are definitely changes under this new scheme.  A worker only has 104 weeks of weekly payments from the date of their injury.  If you were previously on the scheme and had ongoing payments, unless you were a seriously injured worker (which is defined as a worker with a 30% impairment or more), your payments will be cut off in the next few months as of the 30th June 2017.

It sounds complicated?

It is complicated.  In particular there has also been a change in the causation test which defines how injuries are compensated.  Previously, as long as you’ve injured yourself at work and it was through the course of your employment, it was a claimable condition.  Now, there has been a change in that test that states it has to be related to your work duties.  It can not just be that your injury happened at work.  It has to be that your work duties have contributed to the injury as well.

It is important for people to come in if they are injured and take advantage of DBH’s services for a first free interview to get some advice on what entitlements they have under the act.  Free call us on 1800 324 324 or send us a message.