PREMIUMS for the state’s bloated WorkCover scheme will have to rise 28 per cent to bring it back into the black, an increase that will cost more than 12,500 jobs, reports the Telegraph. This article also covers the planned axes such as journey claims and coverage for relatives of dead injured workers…
Workcover NSW reforms will cost more than 12500 jobs!
The parliamentary inquiry into the program, which is $4 billion in debt, begins today and business groups are expected to support some of the government’s contentious reform proposals, designed to keep jobs in NSW.
Premiums paid by NSW employers are already between 20 and 60 per cent higher than in other states.
The government wants to axe coverage for “journey claims”, meaning if you are injured on your way to or from work, your employer is no longer liable, saving up to $100 million a year.
The government’s submission also suggests axing the coverage for relatives of dead or injured workers suffering “nervous shock” and capping weekly payments in line with other states.
In Victoria, payments are generally capped at 130 weeks, Queensland has a cap of five years or $200,000 and Western Australia stops payments after a person claims over $190,000.
“The NSW business community supports the proposed changes put forward by the government. The current proposals for reform of the scheme are anticipated to have a positive impact on the scheme’s finances, and will focus support for the most seriously injured, where the community expects it should be focused,” NSW Business Chamber CEO Stephen Cartwright said.
But while Mr Cartwright supports the government’s changes he said they don’t go far enough and are not “sufficient in themselves to bring about a sustainable and fully funded scheme”.
Unions NSW yesterday unveiled a campaign against the proposed cuts and announced a rally at Parliament House on June 13. In their submission to the inquiry, they claim the government is vastly inflating the deficit and there is no evidence of the movement of business interstate.
[Source: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/workcover-reforms-to-cost-jobs-in-nsw/story-e6freuy9-1226361536635]
Shortlink: http://aworkcovervictimsdiary.com/?p=8415
Will any increase in premiums be the fault of injured workers? No! Any rise in premiums will fall squarely on the shoulders of the government and WorkCover’s failures to manage the system.
http://aworkcovervictimsdiary.com/2012/05/workcover-nsw-shuffles-deck-chairs-while-titanic-sinks/
I also wonder where NSW Business Chamber came up with these figures? Sounds like a great deal of speculation to me. Concerns about premiums should not detract from the fact that injured workers are poorly treated and earn less than adequate earnings as it is. THIS IS THE MAIN ISSUE THAT NEEDS TO BE URGENTLY ADDRESSED.
The workers compensation scheme in NSW is unsustainable and leading to a “lump-sum payment culture”, a parliamentary inquiry has been told.
WorkCover executive Geniere Aplin says the scheme needs urgent reform to tackle a $4.1 billion blow-out, which the NSW government claims will push up premiums by 28 per cent.
It wants to overhaul the scheme to make it financially sustainable, leading to union claims that benefits to injured workers will be slashed.
Speaking at the inquiry on Monday, Ms Aplin said good compensation schemes were reformed at least every five years – and WorkCover hadn’t been touched in ten years.
Tinkering with premiums and benefits won’t go far enough, she added.
“If you look at scheme design around financial incentive and disincentive, and compare NSW to other schemes in Australia, does it have an optimal benefit design to support people to return to work?” Ms Aplin asked.
“I would question that.”
Instead, she said a “lump-sum culture” was emerging.
“Injured workers are staying off work longer, more injured workers are receiving lump-sum benefits than before,” she said.
Consultant to WorkCover, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Michael Playford, told the inquiry workers weren’t to blame for the cultural shift.
All parties, including those in the legal and medical professions, were contributing to the change, he said.
“That’s why we use the term lump-sum culture,” he said.
The NSW Business Chamber will on Monday tell the inquiry that if premiums increase by 28 per cent, 12,600 jobs and job opportunities could be lost across the state.
But Unions NSW secretary Mark Lennon said the argument was based on false premises.
“Independent analysis shows that workers compensation premiums have very little effect on where businesses establish themselves,” he said.
http://finance.ninemsn.com.au/newsbusiness/8470842/nsw-workcover-unsustainable-executive
A senior WorkCover executive has told a parliamentary inquiry that the state’s workers’ compensation scheme should have been reformed every five years and now needs an overhaul.
The General Manager for WorkCover’s insurance operations Geniere Aplin has told a public hearing that changing premiums and benefits will not be enough to fix the scheme’s $4 billion deficit.
A joint select committee is examining options that include capping medical benefits and putting a time limit on entitlements.
Ms Aplin says the organisation has tried to improve its financial position, but it is clear bigger changes are needed.
“Schemes across the nation and internationally (that) are generally good compensation schemes will look at major reform every five years, this scheme hasn’t had major reform for ten years,” she said.
Ms Aplin said factors like spiralling medical costs and a drop in investment meant the compensation scheme would soon be unviable.
The joint select committee, chaired by the Shooters, has been given a month to examine options.
Before the hearing, the New South Wales Business Chamber’s Damien Kelly says if changes are not made, premiums would have to rise by 28 per cent to put the scheme back in the black.
Chambers members estimate they would have to let about 12,500 staff go.
“It will mean not only laying off staff, but the potential for them to expand their business goes out the window,” he said.
Unions NSW have launched an advertising blitz against the changes, but secretary Mark Lennon says its business groups that are running a scare campaign.
“The business community always comes out and runs these arguments about job losses but we don’t see the evidence,” he said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-21/public-hearings-begin-into-workcover-cuts/4023196?section=nsw
Really, WorkCover have a major credibility issue. I’m hard pressed to see a lump sum cultural shift – this is a major over-statement simply because getting the level of impairment necessary to go for a lump sum is virtually impossible. Consultant to WorkCover, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Michael Playford, told the inquiry workers weren’t to blame for the cultural shift. At least someone realises that it’s not workers who are to blame for these failures.
I just read in the SMH an interesting article.
HALF of the $4 billion deficit in the finances of the state’s WorkCover scheme are the result of poor returns on investments, accountants have found.
I think the poor injured workers are paying for investments that have failed. They really should look at how much the insurance company’s are being paid to look after the cases.
In its submission to the inquiry, workers’ compensation law firm Slater & Gordon said payments to insurance companies between 2001 and 2009 have increased from $134 million to $476 million.
This is so important to understand – it is no fault of injured workers that this system has gone into such a deep financial hole. And this has been a major motivation for Michelle and I to refocus all attention back onto the plight of injured workers.
http://aworkcovervictimsdiary.com/2012/05/iwsn-factual-submission-parliamentary-inquiry-workcover-compensation-nsw-scheme/
Our concern is that injured workers will suffer even more if this government ignores the true state of affairs. The economic imperative of reducing and containing costs has led to increasingly poor treatment of injured workers already.
where being bent over and are being belted in the freckle