WorkCover Queensland pays weekly compensation for up to five years. Payments stop sooner if you recover enough to go back to work, or if the weekly payments on your claim reach the legal maximum of 216.15 times Queensland ordinary time earnings (QOTE). Using the 2026-27 QOTE of $1,994.50, that maximum is $431,111. Whichever of those happens first ends your weekly payments.[1]
Within those limits, how long you stay on WorkCover Queensland depends on the severity of your injury, your medical needs and your ability to return to work. In general, WorkCover will provide support until you have recovered and can return to work, or until it is clear that your injury is permanent.
If your injury is severe and your recovery will take longer, WorkCover may provide ongoing financial and medical support until you are medically stable or have reached maximum medical improvement. This is commonly described by doctors as your injuries becoming ‘stable and stationary’. If WorkCover sends you for an independent medical examination, it may be an indication that you’ve reached maximum improvement.
WorkCover will regularly review your situation to ensure that you are receiving appropriate support and that your circumstances haven’t changed.
Once weekly payments stop because of the five-year limit or the maximum, your entitlement to further compensation for that injury ends. Medical treatment is dealt with separately. WorkCover’s funding for treatment, hospital care and expenses stops once your weekly payments have stopped and further treatment is not likely to improve the injury.[1]
Wage benefits payable to you
When you have an accepted WorkCover claim and cannot work at all, the workers’ compensation insurer pays you each week on the following basis:[2]
- The first 26 weeks: 85% of your normal weekly earnings, or the amount set by your award or agreement if that is higher. If no award or agreement covers your job, the alternative is 80% of QOTE.
- From 26 weeks to 2 years: 75% of your normal weekly earnings, or 70% of QOTE if that is higher.
- From 2 years to 5 years: the same rate continues if you show WorkCover that your injury could result in a degree of permanent impairment (DPI) of more than 15%. Otherwise you receive the single pension rate, which is the maximum single Disability Support Pension rate, not counting allowances.
If you can do some work, WorkCover instead tops up your loss of earnings under a separate formula, and the top-up is never more than you would receive if you could not work at all.[2]
WorkCover will also reimburse your receipts for your injury-related expenses so it is important to keep copies of your records.
There is a convenient WorkCover app known as Worker Assist that allows injured workers to simply upload photographs of receipts, track payments, and manage appointments.
If your injuries are permanent
If your injuries become stable and stationary but you’ve still not fully recovered, you will be considered to have sustained a degree of permanent impairment.
In this case, WorkCover should send you for a final medical assessment and issue you with a Notice of Assessment. A Notice of Assessment describes your residual degree of permanent impairment as a percentage score out of 100, and includes an accompanying offer of lump sum compensation.
Your ongoing statutory benefits (weekly payments, treatment and rehabilitation) stop when you tell WorkCover your decision on the lump sum offer, whether you accept it or not, or when 20 business days pass after you receive it, whichever comes first.[3]
What your Notice of Assessment lets you do
Weekly benefits and treatment funding stop when you accept the offer or when the 20 business days pass. Psychiatric injuries do not attract the additional lump sum. Get advice before you respond to any offer: how a WorkCover common law claim works.
Permanent injuries can often entitle you to make other claims in addition to the WorkCover claim, such as a common law claim for damages if your employer’s negligence caused the injury, or a claim for total permanent disability benefits through your superannuation fund.
Seek expert legal advice
Workers’ compensation laws and regulations can be complex. It’s essential to keep in touch with your WorkCover case manager and healthcare providers to discuss your progress and any changes in your condition. If you have any questions about your entitlements or how long you can stay on WorkCover, it’s best to contact WorkCover Queensland directly or seek legal advice from one of Roche Legal’s workers’ compensation lawyers.
Frequently asked questions about WorkCover time limits
Up to five years of weekly payments. They stop earlier if your incapacity for work ends, or if the weekly payments on your claim reach the maximum of 216.15 times QOTE, which is $431,111 using the 2026-27 QOTE of $1,994.50. The limits are in sections 140 and 144A of the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003.
If you cannot work at all, you receive 85% of your normal weekly earnings for the first 26 weeks, or your award amount if that is higher. From 26 weeks to two years you receive 75% of your normal weekly earnings or 70% of QOTE, whichever is higher. From two to five years that rate continues only if your injury could result in a permanent impairment of more than 15%. Otherwise you receive the single pension rate.
Not indefinitely. Under section 144B, funding for medical treatment, hospital care and expenses stops once your weekly payments have stopped and further treatment is not likely to improve your injury. If treatment is still improving your condition when weekly payments end, get advice before assuming the funding has stopped.
For the first 12 months after your injury, your employer must not dismiss you solely or mainly because the injury has left you unfit for your job. That is section 232B of the Act, and a breach carries a penalty. If you are dismissed because you are not fit for your job because of the injury, you can apply to your employer for reinstatement within 12 months after the injury under section 232D.
You can, and section 144A of the Act does not list resigning as one of the events that stops weekly payments. They stop when your incapacity stops, after 5 years, or when the maximum is reached. The insurer can still review your entitlement at any time (section 168), and you must keep taking part in rehabilitation (section 232).
Resigning can still hurt you. You give up the job you might have returned to, the 12-month protection against dismissal and the right to apply for reinstatement both deal with dismissal rather than resignation, and returning to suitable duties becomes harder to arrange.
Get advice before you resign, and do not sign a resignation or exit agreement that mentions your injury without having it read first.
Only within what your medical certificate allows, and only if you tell the insurer. A worker receiving compensation must give notice within 10 business days of returning to work or taking up a calling (section 136 of the Act), and not doing so can attract a penalty.
Working beyond your certificate without telling the insurer can stop your payments, can be treated as fraud, and can badly damage your credibility in a later common law claim. If you want to work, ask your doctor and put it to your case manager in writing first.
A holiday does not automatically end your claim, but it can interrupt it. You must take part in rehabilitation, and the insurer can suspend your entitlement if you fail or refuse to do so without a reasonable excuse (section 232 of the Act). Missed appointments and duties that were offered while you were away are the usual trouble.
Moving is different. If you stop ordinarily residing in Australia, you stop being entitled to compensation, subject to a possible redemption payment for a permanent incapacity (section 173). Moving interstate permanently can also change how your claim is handled (section 172).
Before you go, tell your case manager in writing, get your doctor’s agreement, and ask for written confirmation that your payments will continue.
The Act says a worker entitled to compensation can take or accrue annual leave, sick leave and long service leave during the period the compensation covers (section 119A). How that works in your pay depends on your award or agreement, so ask your employer and case manager to confirm it in writing.
If you used leave while waiting on a decision and your claim was then accepted, ask your employer how that leave and the back payment will be treated, including the tax.
The starting point is your normal weekly earnings, based on your employment in the 12 months before the injury, or a shorter period if you had not been employed that long (section 106 of the Act). Overtime, penalties and allowances count only if they were regular and would have continued but for the injury.
If your earnings cannot practically be worked out that way, for example because you had only just started, the insurer must look at comparable workers. Casuals cannot be paid more than their normal weekly earnings.
If the figure looks wrong, ask for the calculation in writing and give the insurer your payslips, including from any second job. A decision to increase or decrease a weekly payment can be reviewed.
For the first part of a claim, called the excess period, your employer must pay you an amount equal to your weekly compensation (section 66 of the Act). After that the insurer pays you directly. The insurer has 20 business days from your application to decide it (section 134).
If your employer has not paid, or a payment has gone missing, tell your case manager in writing with the dates, and ask when it will be fixed.
Weekly payments replace your wages, so they are generally treated as income and tax may be withheld. Check that the figures reported for you match what you received, and ask your accountant if they do not.
If the insurer says you were overpaid, ask for the calculation and the reason in writing before you agree to anything. A decision to suspend or terminate your payments, or to decrease them, can be reviewed by the Regulator, generally within 3 months.
Your employer must take reasonable steps to help with your rehabilitation (section 228 of the Act), and the insurer must take all reasonable steps to secure your early return to suitable duties (section 220). If your old employer has nothing suitable, the scheme can look at duties with another employer.
Do not go beyond your certificate because you feel pressured. Ask your doctor to spell out your restrictions, tell your case manager in writing what is happening, and keep a record of what you were asked to do. See also can WorkCover force you back to work?
The insurer decides what it will pay for, not your employer. If your specialist recommends surgery and nothing is happening, ask your case manager in writing for a decision and the reason for any delay.
You choose who treats you. Since 2024 the Act has said that the insurer and your employer must not interfere with your right to choose the registered person who provides your medical treatment, or who is present during it (section 208B). That includes your right to change GP or get a second opinion, although you should let your case manager know so that certificates and approvals keep flowing.
Your weekly payments and other statutory compensation stop when you tell WorkCover your decision on the lump sum offer, or 20 business days after you receive the offer, whichever happens first. That is section 190 of the Act. Get advice before you respond, because your decision can affect whether you can bring a common law claim.
For offers made from 1 July 2026, each 1% of permanent impairment is worth $4,311, up to $431,111 at 100%. Workers with an impairment of 30% or more can also receive an additional lump sum on top.
These day-to-day issues matter most when your claim is coming to an end. Before it closes, read about getting a Notice of Assessment, because that is usually the step that opens the way to a common law claim. Once a lawyer is involved, see what to expect after you start a personal injury claim.
[1] Sections 140, 144A and 144B, Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld).
[2] Sections 150, 151 and 163, and the definition of “single pension rate” in schedule 6, Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld).
[3] Section 190, Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld).