Who we care for

You don't have to be a professional sportsperson to receive a benefit for a serious sporting injury.

If you sustain a serious sporting injury, either at school or as part of a community sporting club in NSW, you may be able to claim through the icare sporting injuries insurance scheme.

It’s a no-fault scheme that the NSW Government introduced over 30 years ago to provide benefits for people seriously injured playing sport. This includes all authorised sporting activities in NSW schools, as well as sports organisations that have insurance cover through us.

Who is covered by the scheme

All types of sporting organisations may be eligible to take out our cover.

Our sporting injuries insurance cover for the organisation include both players and officials.

Sporting organisation participants are covered for injuries sustained during an ‘authorised sporting activity,’ which includes competitions, trials and training.

Schools don’t need to take out an insurance policy with us. By default, the scheme covers all children in NSW schools Government and Private that are seriously injured in an authorised school sporting activity.

This includes things like:

  • physical education classes
  • school lessons
  • sports carnivals
  • authorised competitions and training.

Types of injuries we cover

We cover serious injuries, such as permanent loss affecting a participant’s arms, legs, sight, hearing and mental capacity. We don’t cover minor injuries, like breaks, sprains, abrasions, cuts and bruises, or dental injuries.

During the application process, the injured person will need to have reached maximum medical improvement before we can finalise their claim.

Whether someone with a sports injury is eligible to receive a benefit, and how much they can receive, will be determined by the percentage of medical impairment. For more detail, refer to the Sporting injuries benefits and payments guide (at the bottom of this page).

Workers insurance exemption

Participants in the scheme are not deemed to be 'workers' under NSW workers compensation legislation when they are:

  • participating in an authorised activity of your organisation
  • engaged in training or preparing with a view to participating in an authorised activity
  • on a journey in connection with participation or training.

This means that if they’re covered under your sporting injuries insurance policy, they may not need workers compensation insurance coverage.

However, as each person’s circumstances are unique, contact us if you need more information.