Further impairment benefits claims

Information about entitlements if you are permanently impaired from a work injury.

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Further impairment benefit claims

If you have eligible progressive disease or a hearing loss injury you may be entitled to a further lump sum payment where your condition has deteriorated since the initial impairment benefit determination.

Examples of injuries which may be eligible for a further impairment benefit claim can include:

  • hearing loss as a result of industrial noise
  • silica related illness
  • occupational cancer

If you have one of the above and you have previously been assessed for an impairment benefit you may be eligible for a further entitlement. You will need to complete a new Workers claim for impairment benefits form and submit it to your WorkSafe agent.

You don't need legal representation to make an impairment benefit claim, but you have the right to legal representation if you choose. Your WorkSafe agent will liaise with your lawyer about your impairment benefit claim. Any legal costs you may incur are not covered by WorkSafe.

Hearing loss

For those who have continued to work in a noisy environment, the continued exposure to industrial noise can cause additional hearing loss. Therefore you may be entitled to a further entitlement where your hearing has deteriorated.

Eligible Progressive Diseases

Section 51A of the WIRC Act allows the Minister to create a Governor in Council (GiC) Order to prescribe certain diseases (which the Act calls 'eligible progressive diseases') and be satisfied that the disease is:

  1. serious and potentially life-threatening; and
  2. extremely likely to cause an ongoing deterioration of a person's health, such that the degree of impairment resulting from the disease is unlikely to stabilise for any significant period of time

Workers with a disease on the GiC Order, who are diagnosed after 1 June 2016 are eligible to lodge further impairment benefit claim.

Here is the list of diseases:

Assessing impairment

To be eligible for an impairment benefit your injury or illness has to have deteriorated since the initial impairment benefit determination resulting in an increased whole person impairment. To determine if the condition has deteriorated you will need to attend a new assessment with an Independent Impairment Assessors who is specially trained in assessing injuries according to specific guidelines.

If you've lodged an impairment benefit claim it's likely you'll need to attend an impairment examination with an assessor.

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