How to lower your Workers Compensation premium

Under this scheme, if you employ an apprentice, you're entitled to a premium reduction based on the wages paid to your apprentice.

To be eligible for the reduction you must have:

• a valid workers compensation policy
• entered into a Training Services NSW approved contract with the apprentice in a designated trade vocation. The apprentice must be identified in the training contract.

We will calculate the apprentice incentive amount based on details you provide in your wages declaration forms.

Find out more about the Apprentice Incentive Scheme

As an employer, you need to notify your claims service provider (GIO, Allianz, DXC Technology, QBE, Gallagher Bassett or EML) within 48 hours of becoming aware of a work-related injury or illness.

If one of your employees is injured at work, you can avoid paying a claims excess by notifying us within five calendar days of you becoming aware of the injury.

The excess amount is equal to the first week of weekly compensation.

Find out more about notification of an incident or claim.

You are entitled to a discount on your premium if you pay your annual premium in full (on or before the due date).

The discount is offered to everyone with a premium of over $240, regardless of your entitlement to instalments.

The discount is based on your initial premium payable and will not be adjusted as part of the hindsight premium calculation process, or if wages estimates are adjusted mid-term.

The discount rate is subject to change. For small employers, the current discount is 5%. For experience-rated employers the current discount is 3%.

If the discounted premium falls below the minimum premium, then the minimum premium applies.

The Safe Employer Reward is a performance-based reward for employers whose policy is calculated under the conventional premium formula method.

Small employers who have at least three years of policy history and no weekly benefit claims costs or catastrophic claim charges in the 36 months prior to policy renewal will receive an SER premium reduction (7.5% x APP) at renewal.

Experience-rated employers who have at least three years of policy history, a Claims Performance Rate (CPR) of less than 100% and no catastrophic claim charges in the 36 months prior to policy renewal will receive an SER premium reduction at renewal.

The reward percentage rate is on a sliding scale based on an employer's CPR (PDF, 0.07MB).

Claims Performance Rate	Safe Employer Reward rate
From 0% to less than 20%	7.50%
From 20% to less than 50%	5.00%
From 50% to less than 100%	2.50%
100% or greater	0%

From 30 June 2026, the Safe Employer Reward (SER) eligibility will be expanded to include the submission of the most recent actual wages declaration due within 4 months of the period expiring for all small and experience rated policies. This means the first policies impacted are those renewing on and after 30 June 2026.

This provides employers time to prepare and understand what they need to do and declare wages on time. Employers that meet the performance criteria but have outstanding wage declarations will not receive the SER.

For more information, please contact icare's Underwriting team on 13 44 22 or via Live Chat. 

For claims made against a policy that is calculated under the conventional premium formula method and commences or renews on or after 30 June 2015, a return to work incentive discount (5, 10 or 15 per cent) will be applied to the cost of each claim with a sustainable return to work outcome within 52 weeks of the date of injury.

Higher discounts apply to faster return to sustainable work outcomes.

Experience-rated employers with claims performance better than the Scheme are eligible to receive a performance discount at the end of the policy year.

All small employers are eligible to receive a performance discount at the end of the policy year.

Note, the Performance Discount applies to conventional policies only and depends on Scheme financial performance. It has not been applied since 2017/18 policy renewal year.