When your WorkCover payments change: the Victorian timetable, and what it does not decide

The amount has changed, or a letter has arrived saying it will. This page sets out the timetable in Victoria's workers compensation scheme, known as WorkCover, with the section numbers, so it can be held against your own letter. It explains a scheme, not your claim.

The scheme has week numbers built into it. When payments step down at 13 weeks, or the test changes at 130 weeks, that is usually the timetable running to plan, not a finding about you.

What happens in the first 130 weeks?

The first entitlement period is the first 13 weeks, paid at 95% of pre-injury average weekly earnings, called PIAWE, less any deductible amount, or twice the State average weekly earnings, whichever is lesser (Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013 (Vic), s 161). Current earnings reduce it dollar for dollar.

The second entitlement period is the 117 weeks after that, out to 130. The rate is 80% of PIAWE under the same cap, reduced by 80% of any current weekly earnings (s 162).

Both are aggregate weeks, "whether or not consecutive" (s 152), counting weeks paid rather than calendar weeks. If payments stopped and restarted, the 130 week mark falls later than the calendar suggests. Dollar thresholds are indexed each 1 July and are not printed here.

Two quieter changes at 52 weeks. After 52 weeks of payments, overtime and shift allowances stop counting in PIAWE (s 157). From the same point, WorkSafe must also start paying superannuation contributions alongside the weekly payments, for workers below retirement age (s 168). Check your payslips for both.

Why the letter comes before the 130 week mark

A termination at the end of the second entitlement period needs 13 weeks' written notice, so the letter has to go out well before week 130 (WorkSafe Online Claims Manual, 3.9.9). The timetable behind it is published. The manual tells the company managing the claim on WorkSafe's behalf, called the Agent, to open the review file by week 78, and requires "an entitlement decision to be made by week 116", with the notice due the week after that (Manual 3.3.4.1).

Those are WorkSafe's instructions to its own claims agents, and you can read them yourself: Claims Manual 3.3.4.1, preparing for the 130 week review.

The week numbers are weeks of weekly payments, not calendar weeks since the injury. Weeks without payments do not count, so no arithmetic from a date you know can tell you which week your claim is in. Only the Agent holds the count. Someone who went back to work for a while reaches week 116 later than someone who did not.

They are also the Agent's deadlines, not yours. If the notice goes out late, the 13 weeks still has to run. The manual says a termination takes effect on the later of the end of the entitlement period or the date in the notice, and that a worker is treated as entitled to weekly payments until that date passes (Manual 3.9.6, 3.9.8). The notice period runs from the day you receive the letter, not the day it was written (Manual 3.9.9).

If you are holding that letter now, the timing is the scheme working to its own schedule. It is not a sign that something unusual has happened with your claim.

What happens at the 130 week mark?

At the end of the second entitlement period, weekly payments cease unless WorkSafe or the self-insurer determines that a worker both:

• has no current work capacity, and is likely to continue indefinitely to have no current work capacity, and
• has a whole person impairment, called WPI, of more than 20% from one or more compensable injuries, assessed under the AMA Guides, 4th edition (s 163(1)(a) and (b); s 167A(1)(c)).

WorkSafe puts "more than 20 per cent" as "21% or more", because impairment is determined in whole percentages. Where payments continue, the rate stays at 80% of PIAWE (s 163(2)), with capacity reviewed at least every two years (s 163(3)).

The impairment limb is new, added by the WorkCover Scheme Modernisation Act (No 8/2024) on 31 March 2024, applying to claims reaching 130 weeks on or after that date. Workers already being paid past 130 weeks before then stay on the old test (s 625(2)). Medical and like expenses run on a separate clock, ending 52 weeks after weekly payments cease, with exceptions (s 232).

Can payments continue past 130 weeks if you are working part hours?

There is a separate pathway for workers with some capacity (s 165). Payments can continue past 130 weeks where a worker has returned to work for at least 15 hours per week, earns at least the indexed weekly floor the section sets, and is assessed as likely to be incapable indefinitely of increasing those earnings. For claims reaching 130 weeks on or after 31 March 2024, the impairment limb applies here too: WPI of more than 20% (s 165(4)).

What about surgery after 130 weeks?

Two rules are worth knowing. Weekly payments can restart for up to 13 weeks around approved surgery after 130 weeks (s 164). And impairment can be re-determined after later surgery (s 164A).

Is this the same test a TPD policy uses?

No. Three separate tests sit here. None decides another.

1. The scheme test. No current work capacity likely to continue indefinitely, plus WPI of more than 20% (s 163(1)).
2. The superannuation release test. A trustee must be "reasonably satisfied that the member's ill-health (whether physical or mental) makes it unlikely that the member will engage in gainful employment for which the member is reasonably qualified by education, training or experience" (Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Regulations 1994 (Cth), reg 1.03C). There is no percentage in it. Temporary incapacity sits separately at reg 6.01(2), the income protection gateway.
3. The policy test. Total and permanent disability cover and income protection cover inside superannuation are contracts. The definition sits in the policy and the fund's insurance guide, and an insurer applies it.

An impairment assessment under the scheme is final "for the purposes of this Act" (s 53A(1)), and no further.

So the test that ends this scheme is not the test a TPD or income protection policy uses, and a termination under one does not decide the other. A TPD policy is assessed under its own definition, set out in the policy document, not under a scheme's whole person impairment percentage. That runs both ways: it does not mean a claim exists, only that one door closing is not a decision about another. What a policy would do depends on the policy.

One interaction matters while weekly payments continue. Periodic payments from an insurer or a superannuation trustee for the same injury count as a "disability pension" and reduce weekly payments where the total with earnings exceeds indexed PIAWE (s 172(7) and (8)). Separate rules cover a lump sum tied to leaving that employment (s 172(2) and (3)). Either way, written notice is required within 14 days (s 173). How a payment is treated is a legal question for a firm on our panel.

What can you do this week?

The claim file, at no cost. WorkSafe or a self-insurer must, at a claimant's request, give any information they hold relevant to the claim, with reasons, within 28 days (ss 9(1) and 9(3)). The claims manual puts it plainly: "Every worker with an injury claim has a right to access documents relating to their claim in the claim file managed by an Agent" (Manual 1.2). The Agent is the company managing the claim on WorkSafe's behalf. The request can be verbal or written, with no prescribed form, no fee and no access charge for your own file (Manual 1.2.4 and 1.2.4.1).

A wide request works better than a narrow one: scope is read narrowly. Searches must cover electronic systems, hard copy and "surveillance footage, discs and reports" (Manual 1.2.4), and the manual's own example of an obviously relevant document is a report by a medical examiner the Agent sent you to, or a surveillance report (Manual 1.2.5).

No decision within 28 days is a deemed refusal, and non-compliance is itself a dispute (s 9(7)): the review path runs through conciliation within 60 days of the notice (s 282; Manual 1.2.4.1), then the Magistrates' Court (s 266(2)), with no further time limit.

Conciliation, if a decision does not look right. It is free, and it runs on a 60 day clock from the decision notice (s 289A(4)), though the service that trades as WIC may extend that or accept a late application (s 289B). Lodging obliges the Agent to review its decision against any new information (Manual 1.4.1.1), and a conference is usually convened within 40 to 50 days (Manual 7.3). A lawyer cannot attend without the service's permission (s 290A). A Conciliation Officer may direct interim weekly and medical payments while the dispute runs (s 297).

Worth knowing before ordering anything for a conciliation: anything said there, and any document prepared for the purposes of one, is inadmissible in other proceedings (s 268(1), with exceptions in s 268(2)). A report already in the file does not carry that restriction. A report ordered for the conference does.

Your super fund, by phone. Have your member number if you can find it. "I'm not sure" is a fine answer to anything they ask. Questions worth asking:

• What insurance is attached to this account: total and permanent disability, income protection, or death cover?
• How much is each type of cover for?
• Is the cover active now, and has it ever lapsed or been switched off?
• What cover was attached on the date of my injury?
• Can you send me the insurance guide and policy wording that applied then?
• Are there any time limits for making a claim?

Funds you no longer pay into count too.

Four dates, written down. Date of injury, date weekly payments started, date of any letter changing them, date of any impairment assessment.

What changed for mental injury claims in 2024?

For injuries on or after 31 March 2024, a mental injury must be diagnosed under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, called the DSM, and must arise predominantly out of employment (s 39(1A)). Claims predominantly caused by work-related stress or burnout from events that are usual and reasonably expected in the job are excluded (s 40(1A)), with an exception where the injury comes from traumatic events (s 39(2A)). Provisional payments for medical treatment apply while a mental injury claim is decided, and for 13 weeks after a rejection. Injuries before 31 March 2024 keep the earlier rules.

What costs nothing?

• Your claim file is free to request, and conciliation free to lodge (ss 9, 301(1)).
• Your super fund can tell you what cover is attached to your account, at no cost.
• If a superannuation or insurance decision does not seem right, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) is free (afca.org.au).
• The National Debt Helpline offers free financial counselling on 1800 007 007 (ndh.org.au).

ClaimGuide does not run claims, assess entitlements, or tell you what a policy will pay. We explain how these systems connect and, if you want, introduce you to a firm on our panel that handles this type of claim. You never pay us. Panel firms do.

Check everything on this page

Every section reference above was checked against these sources on 14 August 2026, except the changes at 52 weeks, the s 164, s 164A and s 165 pathways and the 2024 mental injury rules, which were checked on 13 August 2026. The Claims Manual timetable and notice sections (3.3.4.1, 3.9.6, 3.9.8 and 3.9.9) were re-read on 17 August 2026.

• Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013 (Vic), authorised version 053, for ss 9, 39, 40, 53A, 152, 157, 161, 162, 163, 164, 164A, 165, 168, 172, 173, 232, 266, 268, 282, 289A, 289B, 290A, 297, 301 and 625. In force version list.
• WorkSafe, Request access to information
• WorkSafe Claims Manual 1.2, Access to information and privacy, with 1.2.4 Receipt, scope and searches and 1.2.5 Information that can be released. Manual sections 1.4.1.1 and 7.3 sit in the same online manual.
• WorkSafe Claims Manual 3.3.4.1, preparing for the 130 week review, for the week 78, week 116 and week 130 timetable the manual sets its agents.
• WorkSafe Claims Manual 3.9.9, period of notice, for the 13 weeks of notice before termination, running from the day the notice is received.
• WorkSafe Claims Manual 3.9.5 to 3.9.6, wrongful termination and written notice and 3.9.7 to 3.9.8, contents and types of notices, for when a termination takes effect if the notice is late or short.
• WorkSafe, Second entitlement period FAQ, for the 130 week test and the 31 March 2024 change.
• WIC, Conciliation and WIC, About
• Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Regulations 1994 (Cth), current compilation, for reg 1.03C and reg 6.01(2). Compilation F2026C00541, in force 1 July 2026.
• WorkSafe, Weekly payments information, for the current indexed weekly maximum.
• WorkSafe, Practice directive: whole person impairment and ongoing entitlement to weekly payments, for the "21% or more" wording.
• WorkSafe, Scheme modernisation, for the commencement date of the 2024 amendments.
• WorkSafe Claims Manual 4.3.5, for medical and like entitlements after weekly payments end.