Workers compensation in Victoria: where you are on the schedule
This is the Victorian workers compensation line, drawn from end to end. Each marked point is something the scheme does on its own timetable, with the section of the law it comes from. Most people are never shown this. Knowing where a point falls is not a decision about your claim.
- Payments run at 95% of pre-injury earnings for the first 13 weeks paid, then 80% from week 14 to week 130. WIRC Act ss 161 to 162.
- At 130 weeks, payments stop unless the scheme determines no current work capacity, likely to continue indefinitely, and whole person impairment above 20%. That termination needs 13 weeks written notice. WIRC Act s 163(1); Claims Manual 3.9.9.
- Medical and like expenses generally continue for 52 weeks after weekly payments end. WIRC Act s 232.
Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013 (Vic), called the WIRC Act below.
Your line is drawn heavy. The lines that can run beside it are drawn lighter, and they stay labelled and clickable. Weight shows focus, not importance, and colour never carries a meaning on its own. Every marked point is repeated as text below, with its source.
Nothing on this map marks where you are. A position on a scheme timetable is a fact about the scheme. Where you sit on it is yours, and it is not something this page decides.
The marked points on this line
- Week 1
Payments begin at 95%
Weekly payments run at 95% of PIAWE (pre-injury average weekly earnings) for the first 13 weeks paid. The count is weeks paid, not calendar weeks.
Source: WIRC Act s 161, s 152 · Checked August 2026 - Week 14
First step-down, to 80%
From week 14 to week 130 of payments, the rate is 80% of PIAWE.
Source: WIRC Act s 162 · Checked August 2026 - Week 78
The review file opens
WorkSafe’s published instructions tell claims agents to begin the 130 week review by week 78. Most people are not told this has started.
Source: WorkSafe Claims Manual 3.3.4.1 · Checked August 2026 - Week 116
The decision is scheduled
The same manual timetable has the entitlement decision made by week 116, so the notice period can run before week 130.
Source: WorkSafe Claims Manual 3.3.4.1 · Checked August 2026 - Week 130
The 130 week test
Payments stop at 130 weeks unless the scheme determines the worker has no current work capacity, likely to continue indefinitely, and whole person impairment (WPI) of more than 20%. WorkSafe words this as 21% or more. A termination on this ground needs 13 weeks (91 days) written notice.
Source: WIRC Act s 163(1); Claims Manual 3.9.9 · Checked August 2026 - After payments
Medical support tail
Medical and like expenses generally continue for 52 weeks after weekly payments end, with exceptions, including services essential to health or the activities of daily living.
Source: WIRC Act s 232 · Checked August 2026
Lines that can run beside yours
These are separate systems with their own rules. One can run at the same time as the line above.
- Income protection (IP)
- Total and permanent disability and life cover
- Superannuation and incapacity
- Centrelink
- Return to work
One line does not decide another
The test that ends one scheme is not the test a total and permanent disability (TPD) or income protection policy uses. A termination under one scheme 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.
None of this means you have a claim, and nothing on this page is an assessment of one. It means the end of one entitlement is not a verdict on all of them. Here is how to find out what cover you hold, free, in one phone call.
Where to go next
- Back to What happens next, where you can switch systems and states.
- When Victorian WorkCover payments change, and what that does not decide
Other lines with checked data
- Workers compensation, New South Wales
- Workers compensation, Queensland
- Workers compensation, South Australia
- Transport Accident Commission (TAC), Victoria
- Comcare (national)
- Disability Support Pension (DSP), national
Check everything on this page
Every marked point above carries its own citation. These are the instruments and regulator pages behind them, all checked August 2026.
- Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013 (Vic)
- WorkSafe Victoria Online Claims Manual 3.3.4, the 130 week review timetable
- WorkSafe Victoria Online Claims Manual 3.9.9, period of notice
If something here has changed since it was checked, tell us and we will fix it: contact.
Enquiries open soon. When they do, the contact page is where to reach us: we'll explain which doors exist for your situation and, if you want, introduce you to a firm on our panel. You never pay us. Panel firms do.
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