Frequently asked questions

Six months from when your entitlement to compensation arises. s 131 of the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 makes a claim valid only if it is lodged within that window, and lodging more than 20 business days late can also reduce what an accepted claim can recover, separately from the 6-month bar itself.

Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld), s 131.

Not any more. A higher “major significant contributing factor” test for psychological injury was repealed for injuries sustained on or after 30 October 2019. Under the current Act, section 32 applies the same “a significant contributing factor” test to a psychological injury as to a physical one.

Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld), s 32 and s 731.

s 32(5) excludes a psychiatric or psychological disorder that arises from reasonable management action taken in a reasonable way by your employer, from your own expectation or perception of such action, or from how the Regulator or insurer handled your claim itself. This exclusion has no equivalent for a physical injury, and it is the issue most rejected psychological injury claims turn on.

Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld), s 32(5).

Usually yes. WorkCover Queensland's own guidance states you can usually access mental health treatment funded by WorkCover while your claim is being assessed, provided you have lodged a claim and have a work capacity certificate from a doctor. If the claim is later rejected, funding does not continue past that point, but you do not have to pay back what was already provided.

WorkCover Queensland, Accessing early mental health support.

GP appointments, counselling or psychology sessions, psychiatry appointments, and medication such as antidepressants. It does not cover in-patient hospital costs or costs related to a hospital stay. This site has not found an official source stating a fixed number of sessions covered before a case-manager review.

WorkCover Queensland, Accessing early mental health support.

Weekly payments are calculated as a percentage of your own normal weekly earnings or Queensland ordinary time earnings (QOTE), whichever is greater, stepping down at 26 weeks and again at 2 years. QOTE is confirmed at $1,994.50 per week for the 2026–27 financial year, which puts the 80% first-26-week floor at a calculated $1,595.60 and the 70% floor after that at a calculated $1,396.15. Your own payment depends on your specific earnings and is not something this site calculates for you.

Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld), ss 150-151; WorkCover Queensland, What is QOTE?

You can apply for a review with the Regulator within 3 months of the insurer's written decision, and the Regulator must decide the review within 25 business days. If the review outcome is also unfavourable, an appeal to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission must be lodged within 20 business days of that review decision, a much shorter clock than the review deadline.

Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld), ss 542, 545, 548A, 550.

WorkCover Queensland insures most employers, but a licensed self-insurer manages its own workers compensation claims through its own workers compensation unit instead. You can check the published list of self-insured employers, or confirm whether your employer holds a current accident insurance policy with WorkCover Queensland.

Office of Industrial Relations, Making a claim.

By a Medical Assessment Tribunal only. Unlike a physical injury, which can be assessed by a doctor with a second-opinion or tribunal-review option, a psychiatric or psychological injury's degree of permanent impairment goes straight to a tribunal, and WorkCover Queensland's own guidance confirms that tribunal decision is final with no equivalent second look.

Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld), s 179.

Only where the practitioner's record shows a confirmed clinical endorsement. “Psychologist” is a protected AHPRA title and “clinical psychologist” requires a separate area-of-practice endorsement, so this directory shows each practitioner's discipline exactly as recorded, rather than assuming a title.

No. This is an independent directory, not WorkCover Queensland, the Office of Industrial Relations or the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission, and it has no affiliation with any of them. It does not give legal or medical advice and does not predict whether any claim will be accepted.