If you suffer an injury or become unwell due to your work, you are protected by workers compensation law. All workers can receive compensation in the form of weekly payments and medical benefits while they recover from their workplace injury.
But what happens if you’re approaching or over retirement age? Are you still eligible for workers compensation if you’re injured in the workplace?
The ‘retirement age’ is the age at which you are eligible to receive an age pension. In Australia, the current retirement age is 67 years. But more Australians are now working into their late 60s and even 70s.
If you already receive workers compensation benefits for a workplace injury, you may wonder what will happen when you get to retirement age. Or you might worry about whether workers compensation will apply if you injure yourself at work after retirement age.
Below you can read more about how your entitlement changes at this age.
Note that this information relates to New South Wales. Each state and territory has its own workers compensation scheme and the laws could be different where you live.
For example, Queensland has no retirement age provisions in its workers compensation laws. There is no age cut-off for access or benefits. Injured workers of any age can receive benefits until either their injury is stable or for a maximum of 5 years.
Find out how the NSW workers compensation scheme changes workers’ access to compensation when they reach retirement age.
Weekly payments up to and beyond retirement age
Up to retirement age
If you’re receiving workers compensation benefits in NSW, and are close to retirement age of 67, you should find out what will happen to those benefits so you can plan for the changes.
You can continue to receive weekly payments until your 1-year anniversary of reaching retirement age. So if you turn 67 on 1 December 2024, your payments will cease on 1 December 2025.
Your insurer must notify you about this at least 13 weeks before they stop your payments. Their notification should tell you the date that your payments will stop, including the date of the last payment.
Working past retirement age
If you are a worker who is older than the retirement age of 67, and you become injured or unwell due to your work, you can still make a workers compensation claim. However, the weekly payments you receive will stop 12 months after the date of your injury.
This creates a specific problem for older workers, as it can take time to get the appointments, diagnoses and treatment advice you may need. So the 12 months could pass quickly while you’re doing all this. The sooner you start the compensation process, the better.
Medical expenses after retirement age
As well as weekly payments, workers can receive benefits to cover reasonable medical and treatment expenses.
This can include GP visits, hospital expenses and medications. It can also cover rehabilitation expenses, travel expenses to and from treatment, and even home care.
However, there are time limits for receiving medical expenses after retirement age, depending on the extent of your whole person impairment (WPI). You may be eligible to claim medical expenses for up to 5 years after your payments cease.
You will need a medical assessment to determine your percentage of WPI. This percentage will determine how long you can claim reasonably necessary medical benefits:
- 10% or less WPI – you can claim for 2 years from when your weekly payments stop or the date of your claim if you didn’t receive weekly payments
- 11–20% WPI – you can claim for 5 years from when your weekly payments stop or the date of your claim if you didn’t receive weekly payments
- 21% or more WPI – you can claim medical benefits for life, whether you sustained your injury or illness before or after the retirement age.
If a medical assessment finds that you didn’t suffer any impairment at retirement, you might need to look into Medicare or private health insurance for your ongoing medical needs.
You can see how important the medical assessment of your impairment is in determining how much workers compensation you can receive after retirement age.
There are no time limits on these medical expenses:
- crutches, artificial members, eyes, teeth, other artificial aids or spectacles (including hearing aids and hearing aid batteries)
- home or vehicle modification
- secondary surgery (if related to the earlier surgery and approved by the insurer within 2 years of the earlier surgery approval).
If you’re an exempt worker (e.g. police officer, firefighter, ambulance officer), there is no time limit for reasonably necessary medical expenses.
Additionally, there are no retirement age limits to medical expenses for firefighter volunteers, official firefighters of the Rural Fire Service and SES/surf life saver volunteers.
Does workers compensation cover injuries related to aging?
An injury or condition related to aging might not be covered by workers compensation if it is not directly related to your work (including travel for work). Medical assessments are vital to prove that the injury was due to work and not normal aging.
However, you may be eligible to make a workers compensation claim for a pre-existing injury if your current job makes it worse.
Workplace injuries close to or beyond retirement age can be complex, so you need the right advice from a workers compensation lawyer to get everything you’re entitled to.
How Main Lawyers can help
There are strict time limits for making workers compensation claims up to and after retirement age. However, you should never assume you don’t qualify for assistance – even if don’t meet these time limits.
At Main Lawyers, we have seen a number of workers receive compensation for medical expenses after retirement age limits. Each case is different and you have nothing to lose by speaking to one of our compensation experts.
Contact us to book in a free, no-obligation consultation to discuss your specific circumstances. Then we can determine your eligibility to make a claim and get you on the path to recovery.