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Department of Justice and Community Safety

GENERAL INFORMATION

The ACT Workers Compensation Act 1951(the Act) aims to provide timely, safe and durable return to work through effective injury management and income support to injured workers. It works in conjunction with occupational health and safety legislation which seeks to reduce the human and economic cost of work-related injury through improvements in the management of occupational health and safety in the workplace.

ACT WorkCover is the government agency responsible for the administration of the workers compensation legislation. ACT WorkCover provides an advisory and inspectorate function on a range of workers compensation and occupational health and safety matters to assist employers and workers.

Workers compensation in the ACT is a privately underwritten and market driven scheme.  Insurers apply to ACT WorkCover to become “Approved Insurers” to offer workers compensation coverage in the ACT.  A general overview of the performance of the ACT Private Sector Workers Compensation Scheme performance is provided in the financial year scheme updates.  

Inspectors

Inspectors are appointed under the Act to ensure compliance with the legislation. They also investigate employee complaints, undertake investigations in relation to prosecutions and provide information on workers compensation matters to the general public.

If you have a workers compensation inquiry, you should contact ACT WorkCover.

Statutory Information

The Act prescribes a number of statutory limits and adjustments affecting benefits under the scheme. 

These include reference to: average weekly earnings and consumer price index issued by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and federal minimum wage issued by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.  (Australian Bureau of Statistics data is used with permission from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.)

Current information on figures relating to benefits applicable to injuries incurred 
on or after 1 July 2002 are available here.

Please note, ACT WorkCover no longer provides the calculation adjustments in relation to workers compensation payments prior to 1 July 2002. To calculate the indexation amount please refer to the relevant piece of legislation.

For further information, please contact your insurer, or the Workers Compensation Hotline on 6205 0760.

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