Large Employer Alternative Pricing
If you’re a large employer in Queensland, you may be able to choose how we calculate your accident insurance premium.
Large Employer Alternative Pricing is an option that can better match your premium to your claims history and safety performance over time.
A different way to price your premium
If you’re a large employer, there are two ways we can work out your premium:
- Experience-Based Rating (EBR) – our standard method
- Large Employer Alternative Pricing (LEAP) – if you’re eligible.
We designed LEAP for organisations whose claims costs are lower than their industry average.
Why some employers choose LEAP
LEAP may suit your organisation if:
- your claim costs are lower than others in your industry
- you invest in work health and safety
- you actively manage injuries and support workers to return to work.
How LEAP reflects changes in claims over time
To reflect how your claims costs change, we:
- review your claims each year
- adjust your premium to better reflect likely final costs
- make sure your premium adjustments become more stable as claims mature.
Who can apply for LEAP
You can apply if
- you are eligible for a self-insurance license in Queensland as a single or group employer, and
- you employ at least 2,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers in Queensland.
We work out your FTE by:
- adding up the ordinary hours your workers have worked over a continuous six-month period in the last 12 months, then
- dividing the total by 910.
This method is set out in section 73 of the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003.
We'll also consider employers who are
- returning to WorkCover after self-insuring, or
- thinking about cancelling their policy to self-insure.
How we assess your application
We look at:
- your claims and safety performance over at least the last five consecutive injury years
- the long-term stability of your historical claims experience
- whether your executive and senior leadership team is committed to workplace safety.
We look at:
- your claims history
- your workplace health and safety performance
- how you comply with Queensland’s laws, including the:
- Work Health and Safety Act 2011
- Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003
- Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Regulation 2025.
Your organisation needs to show a strong commitment to keeping workers safe.
To be eligible:
- a senior executive must give us a written commitment to ongoing safety and injury management, and
- your organisation must show it can:
- improve safety practices
- manage incidents
- support workers to return to work after an injury.
How to apply
Talk to your Relationship Manager about whether LEAP is right for your organisation.
How we calculate your LEAP premium
Under LEAP, we review your premium over time by:
- looking at what your claims cost as they develop
- adjusting your premium each year
- applying limits to avoid large or unexpected premium changes.
We start with a familiar baseline
At the start of each injury year, we:
- calculate your normal premium using the Experience-Based Rating (EBR) method, and
- estimate how your premium may change over the next three years, based on current information.
We call these changes premium adjustments.
We also add GST and stamp duty.
If approved, your policy will be under LEAP for a minimum of three years.
To help you plan and budget, there are limits to how much your premium can change each year.
This means:
- annual adjustments are capped
- your premium can only increase or decrease by up to 50% of your original EBR premium.
We look at several factors to make sure adjustments are fair and consistent.
Claims costs
Your claims costs include:
- The expected future cost of open claims over the next four years, estimated using a run-off factor.
- Caps on very large individual claims:
- $350,000 or $500,000, depending on the claim
- covering combined statutory and common law costs.
- All ‘net’ claim costs, including:
- injuries that happen away from work
- investigation costs
Release factor
To avoid large changes in premiums each year, we use a release factor.
The factor is the same for all LEAP participants.
It:
- helps manage how much your premium can change as claims develop
- increases over time as claims mature and costs become clearer.
We publish the release factor each year in the Queensland Government Gazette.
Run-off factor
Claims often take time to reach their final cost.
The run-off factor helps us estimate the final cost by allowing for:
- future claim development
- administration costs
- cost spreading.
The run-off factor is specific to your organisation.
It decreases as claims mature.
The formula below shows how we use claims costs, run-off and release factors to work out your annual adjustment.
- Claims adjustment = Release factor x [(Claims x Run-off factor) – (EBR premium + all prior adjustments)]
We are here to help. Your Relationship Manager can explain how this applies to your organisation’s premium costs.
Learn more
Find more detail about LEAP in the Queensland Government Gazette.