WorkCover payment rates in Victoria
This page covers the WorkCover payment rates in Victoria for each of the benefits you can receive and any minimum or maximum amounts payable.
Table of Contents
Medical and like expenses rates
As with most insurance schemes, the amount WorkCover will pay to doctors, hospitals and other health professionals is capped.
For the most part, its not something you as the injured worker need to worry about as medical expenses are normally billed directly to the WorkCover insurer.
You should be aware though that in some cases treatment you receive might not be completely covered by WorkCover and there will be a gap that you have to pay.
This can come up with some specialists and some more specialized medications.
One area where it come up more often is services such as home help and garden maintenance.
Either the amount of time allocated for the service provider to do the job is not enough so you end up paying for the extra hours, or the reimbursement rate WorkCover provides isn’t enough and you have to pay the difference to the provider.
Weekly payment rates
WorkCover weekly payments are paid at 95% of your pre-injury average weekly earnings for 13 weeks then at 80% from then on.
We’ve written extensively about weekly payments on The Work Injury Site and you can find more information here:
General information on weekly payments and here
There’s a maximum you can be paid on WorkCover, which is double the Victorian average weekly earnings rate.
This means you currently can’t get more than $2570 a week.
This figure changes year to year as the average weekly earnings rate changes.
Impairment benefit claims
We have a calculator here, which will give you at least a reasonable idea of what you might be entitled to for physical injuries.
For psychiatric injury, the threshold to obtain a lump sum is 30%.
You can get an idea as to the impairment payment rates on this page.
Common law
The law sets out minimum and maximum amounts payable for all work-related injury common law claims.
In relation to the minimum amount, what this means is that if a judge or jury awarded you below the minimum, you get no payment.
You don’t get bumped up to the minimum level.
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If relation to the maximum amount, what this means is that if a judge or jury awarded you above the maximum, it would have to be reduced to the maximum.
When it comes to negotiating with WorkCover to settle a claim, they are obviously aware of the thresholds and if they are going to offer money, will always offers within the thresholds.
This page goes into detail regarding common law claims.
In relation to the maximum amounts payable, bear in mind that very few claims are going to receive amounts at or above the maximum.
These would be injuries like paraplegia or quadriplegia, amputation of a leg or arm, or other injuries of similar severity.
Economic loss is calculated using a formulae that is more complicated than yearly wage multiplied by years until retirement – it’s something to discuss with your lawyer at the appropriate time.
