Weekly compensation

If you’ve experienced a work-related injury or illness, you might need time off work while you recover. Your doctor will put details of this on your work capacity certificate.

If I can’t work, will I still get paid?

If your workers compensation claim is accepted, you may be able to receive weekly compensation for lost wages. This will be paid to you like your wages normally would.

What am I entitled to?

WorkCover will work out how much you’ll be paid based on the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003.

Your payments will depend on:

how long your work capacity certificate or other medical opinion says you should be off work
the date you were injured
the date your doctor first assessed your injury
the length of time you’ve been receiving compensation
whether your job has an award or workplace agreement in place
what your normal wage payments are each week (Normal Weekly Earnings or NWE)
Queensland full-time adult ordinary time earnings (QOTE)

QOTE is the amount of a Queensland full-time adult's ordinary time earnings. These are adjusted year by year (usually on July 1) and are declared by the Australian Statistician. The current rate of QOTE is published in the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation (QOTE) Notice and can be found on the Queensland Legislation website.

There is more detailed information about how weekly compensation is worked out in the sections at the bottom of this page.

If you’re an employer, you can work out and submit an injured worker’s weekly earnings, such as a payroll report, or payslips, through online services.

How do I get paid?

Your first week's compensation will come directly from your employer. This acts as their insurance excess for your claim.

After that, WorkCover will pay your weekly compensation straight into your bank account and in line with your employer’s payroll schedule if we can. This helps you stay on track and keep life as normal as possible.

Tax will be deducted from your payments in the same way as your normal wage. WorkCover doesn’t take deductions for things like your superannuation. Your employer might still have to pay your super while you’re receiving workers compensation. This will depend on your award or workplace agreement.

If you have any other questions about payments you can talk to your WorkCover Customer Advisor. If your employer is self-insured, you’ll need to talk to the relevant claims department.

How long will I be paid for?

Your weekly compensation will stop when the first of the following happens:

you go back to work and aren’t injured any more
you receive a lump-sum offer
you've been receiving weekly payments for five years
your total weekly compensation reaches the maximum amount payable.

Learn about what happens if a claim is stopped.

What information do we use to calculate weekly compensation?

We use information from your employer, or from you, to calculate what you normally earn, known as Normal Weekly Earnings (NWE). When we’re determining the claim, we’ll ask for:

An itemised payroll report from your employer for 12 months before the date of injury. The report must show each payment including wages, penalties and allowances, OR
Payslips from your employer, or from you, for 12 months before the date of injury (or from the date started, if less than 12 months), OR
If these aren't available, we could accept other written wages evidence, such as tax invoices, or bank statements.

How is weekly compensation worked out?

For injuries after 1 Jan 2008

Length of claim - up to 26 weeks

The greater of 85% NWE or amount under the industrial instrument.

For the people that are not covered by an Industrial Instrument, their entitlement is the greater of 85% of NWE or 80% of QOTE, however not more than a person’s normal weekly earnings.

Length of claim - between 26 weeks to 104 weeks

The greater of 75% NWE or 70% QOTE.

Length of claim - 104 weeks onwards

If worker is unfit for work after two years, compensation will depend on degree of impairment.