Weekly payments in a NSW workers compensation claim

Weekly payments

Income while you are unable to work or can only work reduced hours, how the amount is worked out, and what happens when the insurer reassesses your capacity.

General information, not legal advice. This page sets out how the law generally applies. It does not take account of your circumstances, and you should get advice about your own situation before acting on it. The official sources this page is written from are listed on it; where they differ from anything here, they are the authority.

Last updated: 23 September 2026

Weekly payments are the part of a workers compensation claim that replaces some of your income while you cannot work, or can only work reduced hours. For most people they are the part of the claim that matters most at the start, because they are the part that pays the rent. This page sets out where they come from, how the amount is worked out, why the amount changes as a claim goes on, and what can be done when an insurer reduces or stops them.

It is written for someone whose money has already stopped, or who has been sent a notice saying it is about to. Almost all of what follows is procedural, and none of it depends on proving that anybody was at fault. Weekly payments sit inside the New South Wales workers compensation scheme rather than alongside it.

What weekly payments are

icare, which administers workers insurance in New South Wales, publishes weekly payments to cover loss of earnings as one of the categories of payment available on a workers compensation claim. It describes them plainly: weekly payments provide you with some income during your recovery, and there are certain types, depending on your circumstances and the nature of your injury.

They are income replacement, not damages. They are worked out from what you were earning, not from what happened to you. A claim against an employer in negligence is a separate claim with separate requirements, and it is dealt with under work injury damages.

Weekly payments are also a separate entitlement from medical and treatment expenses and from lump sum compensation for permanent impairment. An insurer can accept one and dispute another. A decision about your weekly payments is a decision about your weekly payments, and it does not settle the rest of the claim.

The entitlements themselves sit under the Workers Compensation Act 1987 (NSW). The claims and injury management process around them sits under the Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998 (NSW). Both are on the NSW legislation register, and both have been amended recently.

Payments that can start before the insurer decides liability

You do not necessarily have to wait for the claim to be accepted before any money arrives. icare publishes that provisional payments enable the insurer to start paying weekly payments, and medical expenses, while it fully assesses your claim.

icare publishes that where there has been a loss of earnings leading to an entitlement to weekly payments, the insurer will commence provisional weekly payments within a short set period after being notified of the injury, and that where payments do not start the insurer must give written notice of the reasons. The length of that period, the length of time provisional payments can run, and the ceiling on provisional medical expenses are all set by the scheme and published by icare. None of them is printed here, because the figure that matters is the one in your own notice.

There is a separate arrangement for primary psychological injury. icare publishes interim entitlement payments for psychological injury arising from bullying, racial harassment, sexual harassment or excessive work demands. They are paid within a short period after the insurer receives the minimum evidence required to make a claim, at a proportion of pre-injury average weekly earnings for a limited period, together with a capped amount towards treatment. Eligibility for entitlements on primary psychological injury claims changed during 2026, and there is more on that below.

Provisional payments are made while the insurer is still assessing the claim, and starting them is not the same as the claim being accepted. If the injury has not been reported yet, begin with notifying an injury at work, because nothing on this page starts running until that does.

How much is paid, and why the amount changes

Weekly payments are worked out from your pre-injury average weekly earnings, usually shortened to PIAWE. icare publishes that they are based on your weekly earnings and the non-monetary benefits you received before the injury, including any overtime and shift allowances for an initial period only.

icare publishes that what is actually paid is the smaller of two amounts: a set proportion of your pre-injury average weekly earnings less the value of any deductible amount, or the maximum weekly compensation amount less the value of any deductible amount. On the deductible, icare publishes that the value of any non-monetary benefits you receive as part of your employment will be deducted whichever way your weekly payment is calculated, if they are retained following your injury. What you actually earn in suitable employment is taken into account as well.

The proportion is not fixed for the life of a claim. The Workers Compensation Act 1987 (NSW) sets out successive entitlement periods, and both the rate and the test change as a claim moves from one to the next. Insurer correspondence uses the statutory language, so a letter may refer to your first entitlement period or your second entitlement period. Once those are behind you, continuing payments depend on further requirements, including an assessment of your capacity for work and of what you are able to earn. Later again, weekly payments stop altogether unless permanent impairment has been assessed above a threshold set by the Act.

No percentage, no maximum, no impairment threshold and no number of weeks is printed on this page. The proportions and the periods are statutory, the maximum weekly compensation amount is indexed and changes on set dates, and the impairment threshold connects to permanent impairment assessment, which is its own process. icare publishes the current maximum and the period it applies to, and the State Insurance Regulatory Authority publishes the scheme guidance behind the rest. Take the numbers from there and from your own letters.

If your PIAWE looks wrong, say so early rather than late. It is calculated from records held by your employer and the insurer, and it sets the ceiling on everything paid afterwards. Payslips, rosters, and any record of overtime, allowances or a second job are worth gathering before the argument starts rather than after.

Capacity, the certificate, and work capacity decisions

Weekly payments follow certified capacity. The certificate of capacity written by your nominated treating doctor is the document the insurer pays against, and when what it certifies changes, what is paid usually changes with it. There is more on what the certificate does, and on what happens when it changes, in the guide to certificates of capacity.

icare publishes that payments can be discontinued where there is no certificate of capacity, or where the declaration that you are not engaged in other employment has not been signed, once you have been notified. Keeping the certificates current and signing what needs signing is unglamorous, and it is one of the few parts of this scheme entirely within your own control.

Separately, an insurer can make a work capacity decision: a decision about your current capacity for work and about what you are able to earn. It is the kind of decision that changes what is paid, and it takes effect whether or not you agree with it. Disagreeing with it privately changes nothing. The Personal Injury Commission, which decides workers compensation disputes in New South Wales, publishes a procedural direction dealing specifically with work capacity disputes, WC5.

icare also publishes that refusing or not participating in an assessment of your work capacity may lead to a suspension of payments until the assessment takes place. If you cannot attend something, or cannot do what has been asked, the answer is to say so in writing and keep the reply, rather than to let it pass.

What you can be asked to do while the claim runs, and what your employer has to offer you, is dealt with on return to work. The two pages describe the same decision from opposite ends: that page is about the duties, this page is about the money.

When payments are reduced, suspended or stopped

An insurer does not simply stop paying without a reason recorded on the file. icare publishes the circumstances in which weekly payments can be reduced or stopped. In outline, they are:

There is no current certificate of capacity, or the declaration has not been signed, once you have been notified.
You have not complied with return-to-work obligations, after written notice.
A work capacity decision has been made that you have capacity to earn in suitable employment.
You have not attended a medical appointment the insurer arranged.
You have refused or not participated in an assessment of your work capacity, which icare publishes may suspend payments until the assessment takes place.
An entitlement period has come to an end and the requirements for continuing beyond it are not met.
You have reached retiring age. icare publishes that a worker injured before reaching that age may receive weekly payments for a limited period afterwards, and that a certificate of capacity is required for the period claimed.

Every one of those arrives as a document with a date on it, and the date on the notice is usually the date from which a period starts running. Keep the notice, keep the envelope or the email it came in, and read it before you reply to it. A notice that payments will stop is not the end of the argument; it is the document the next one is built from.

If you disagree with a decision about your weekly payments

The Personal Injury Commission publishes that workers who disagree with all or part of an insurer’s decision have the right to request a review by the insurer before lodging an application with the Commission, and that in some cases an internal review is required before a dispute can be lodged at all. It also publishes that before a dispute can be lodged, a claim must first have been submitted to the insurer.

Applications are lodged through the Commission’s online Pathway Portal. In the legal pathway the Commission describes a preliminary conference, then a conciliation conference and, where the matter is still not resolved, an arbitration hearing at which a member makes a legally binding decision that finalises the dispute.

There is also an expedited pathway, and for weekly payments it matters. The Commission publishes that the worker, the insurer or the employer can apply for an expedited assessment, that the matters it covers include a worker who has received notice from the insurer of a work capacity decision and disputes that decision, and that expedited disputes are managed by a senior lawyer or member of the Commission. Where no agreement is reached, the Commission publishes that the senior lawyer or member will issue an interim payment direction if the dispute is about weekly payments or medical expenses. Eligibility for that pathway depends, among other things, on the period of incapacity in dispute falling within a published limit.

The Commission publishes procedural directions covering both of those: WC2 on interim payment directions, and WC5 on work capacity disputes. They are worth reading before an application is prepared, because they set out what the Commission expects to be filed.

The insurer makes a decision and gives it to you in writing.
You ask the insurer to review its own decision, which in some cases has to happen before anything else can.
An application is lodged with the Personal Injury Commission through its Pathway Portal.
There is a preliminary conference. The Commission publishes that a substantial number of legal disputes are resolved at that stage.
If it is not resolved, a conciliation conference and an arbitration hearing follow, and a member makes a legally binding decision.

There is more on what an insurer’s decision is and what to do with one in the guide to when a decision goes against you. Where the argument is about whether the injury is covered at all, rather than about how much is payable, see liability disputes.

Time limits, and why no number appears here

Several different periods run through this part of the scheme: the time in which an insurer can be asked to review a decision, the time for lodging a dispute with the Commission, the time for asking the President to review or revoke an interim payment direction, the periods for which weekly payments remain payable at all, and the separate windows for appealing. They are real, they are short, and they are strict.

Which one applies to you, and when it started running, depends on the document you were given — the notice about your weekly payments, the work capacity decision, or the insurer’s letter on the claim. That is why no day count is published on this site. Take the period from your own document and from the current Act on the NSW legislation register, and get advice before a date passes rather than after one has.

If you think a period may already have run, that is a reason to ask sooner rather than to give up. Whether anything can be done about it turns on facts a web page cannot know.

This part of the scheme is being changed

The Personal Injury Commission publishes that the Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment Act 2025 and the Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment (Reform and Modernisation) Act 2026 were assented to in late 2025 and early 2026, and that the amendments deal with injury assessment, claims management, available entitlements and how disputes are decided. Available entitlements includes weekly payments.

Changes commenced on 27 March 2026 and on 1 July 2026, and the Commission publishes that further changes are set to commence in October. It also publishes that there are significant changes to the eligibility for entitlements for primary psychological injuries notified after 1 July 2026. If your claim is a psychological injury claim and it was notified recently, that is directly relevant to what is payable.

The Commission’s own workers compensation pages currently carry a notice that the information is being updated and may change as the reforms are implemented. Anything you read about this scheme, on this site or anywhere else, is worth checking against the current Act and against the Commission’s and icare’s own pages before you act on it.

Help that does not depend on this site

Many workers compensation claims are dealt with directly with the insurer and never need a lawyer at all. Where help is needed, it does not have to be paid for privately. The Commission publishes that for workers compensation matters most parties are entitled to government funding for legal assistance through the Independent Legal Assistance and Review Service, which is administered through the Independent Review Office.

The Commission also publishes that it cannot provide legal advice, although it will assist with the procedural aspects of an application; it names the Law Society Solicitor Referral Service, which helps members of the public find lawyers appropriate to their circumstances and needs; and it names LawAccess NSW, a free government telephone service that provides legal information, referrals and, in some cases, advice. Legal Aid NSW publishes that the Independent Review Office is an independent body that deals with complaints by injured workers against insurers, including about weekly benefits, medical treatment, denials of liability and delays. None of those services depends on anyone here.

If you would rather have the documents looked at — the notice, the work capacity decision, the certificates of capacity, the payslips behind your PIAWE — you can tell us what has happened. A short summary is enough to begin. Please do not send medical records before a conflict check.