The time limit for a WorkCover Queensland psychological injury claim
A claim is valid only if it is lodged within 6 months of the entitlement to compensation arising. Waiver of a late application is discretionary, not guaranteed.
s 131 of the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 sets the deadline: a claim is valid and enforceable only if it is lodged by the claimant within 6 months after the entitlement to compensation for the injury arises. For a psychological injury, that is generally from when the disorder or its aggravation manifests, not from a specific incident date, though the exact trigger depends on the facts of the injury.
This deadline applies the same way to a psychological injury as to a physical one. There is no separate, softer clock for psychological injuries in the Act.
Lodging late still has a cost even if it is accepted
If a claim is lodged more than 20 business days after the entitlement to compensation arises, s 131 (subsection (2)) limits the insurer's liability to a period starting no earlier than 20 business days before the day the valid application is actually lodged. In plain terms, lodging late can shrink what the claim can recover even where it is otherwise accepted, separately from the 6-month bar itself.
What is not a guaranteed way past the deadline
An insurer can waive the 6-month limit, but only in specific circumstances the Act sets out: where a medical assessment tribunal is satisfied special circumstances of a medical nature exist, where a doctor, nurse practitioner or dentist assessed the injury within the 6 months and the application follows within 20 business days of that assessment, or where the insurer is satisfied a late application was due to mistake, the claimant's absence from the state, or another reasonable cause. Each of these is a discretion the insurer or a tribunal exercises, not an automatic extension a claimant can rely on. The safest position is to treat 6 months as a hard deadline and lodge well inside it.