Lump sum payments
If you have suffered a permanent impairment as a result of a work-related injury, you may be entitled to a lump sum compensation.
Each potential lump sum entitlement has legislative criteria that must be satisfied to receive the payment.
The most common of type of lump sum payment are Whole Person Impairment (WPI) payments. There is also work injury damages (WID) settlements and commutations.
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Whole Person Impairment (WPI)
If you have sustained an injury that results in a permanent impairment (that is a permanent deterioration in your functional abilities because of your workplace injury) you may be entitled to receive a lump sum payment as compensation. This is in addition to weekly payments, medical and related expenses that are available through the workers compensation system.
Someone who has sustained a psychological injury must reach a threshold of at least 15 per cent WPI to have an entitlement for a lump sum payment. For a physical injury, you must have 11 per cent or more WPI.
Whole Person Impairment for a psychological injury can only be paid if the primary injury is psychological.
A primary psychological injury is a psychological or psychiatric disorder that has arisen because of the initial incident or incidents. A secondary psychological injury is a psychological injury that has developed as a result of the effects of the initial injury. That is, consequential to primary physical injury. An example of this would be when ongoing pain from a physical injury results in a diagnosis of a psychological or psychiatric disorder.
If you have sustained a primary psychological injury as well as a physical injury you may be able to choose to receive whole person impairment for the psychological injury instead of the physical injury. You can't receive it for both.
Your solicitor or your claim service provider may send you to see an Independent Medical Examiner to undertake an assessment and determine your WPI percentage. In order to undertake an assessment for whole person impairment, your condition must be stable and not expected to improve significantly. This is referred to as having reached Maximum Medical Improvement.
Work injury damages (WID) claim
A work injury damages claim may be appropriate if your employer's negligence caused your injury. A WID settlement resolves the entire claim and afterwards you are no longer able to receive support for weekly benefits or medical expenses.
Learn more about work injury damages
Commutation
If all efforts for injury management have been exhausted and there is an ongoing entitlement to weekly benefits, a claims service provider may consider a commutation to resolve your claim. This would mean that your claim would be resolved (through a lump sum payment), and you would not continue to receive support with weekly benefits or medical expenses.
