Queensland Consolidated Acts

WORKERS' COMPENSATION AND REHABILITATION ACT 2003 - SECT 269

269 Costs of rehabilitation

(1) If an insurer intends to ask a court to take the cost of rehabilitation into account in the assessment of damages payable to a worker, the insurer must, before providing the rehabilitation, give the worker a written statement estimating the cost of the rehabilitation.

(2) The insurer must bear, or reimburse, the cost of providing the rehabilitation, unless the insurer’s liability for the cost is reduced—

(a) by agreement with the worker; or

(b) by order of the court.

(3) The cost to the insurer of providing the rehabilitation is to be taken into account in the assessment of damages on the claim if, and only if, the insurer gave the statement mentioned in subsection (1) .

(4) The following applies if the cost of rehabilitation is to be taken into account in the assessment of damages—

(a) the damages are first assessed, without reduction for contributory negligence, on the assumption that the worker has incurred the cost of the rehabilitation;

(b) then, any reduction of the damages assessed, on account of contributory negligence, is made;

(c) then, the total cost of rehabilitation is set off against the amount assessed under paragraph (b) .

Example—

Suppose that responsibility for an injury is apportioned equally between the worker and the insurer. Damages (exclusive of the cost of rehabilitation) before apportionment are fixed at $100,000. The insurer has spent $5,000 on rehabilitation. In this case, the worker’s damages will be assessed under paragraph (a) at $105,000 (that is, as if the worker had incurred the $5,000 rehabilitation expense) and reduced to $52,500 under paragraph (b) , and the $5,000 spent by the insurer on rehabilitation will be set off against this amount, resulting in a final award of $47,500.

(5) If an insurer is induced by a worker’s fraud to provide rehabilitation to the worker—

(a) if the insurer is WorkCover—WorkCover may recover the cost of providing the rehabilitation, as a debt, from the worker; or

(b) if the insurer is a self-insurer—the Regulator may recover, on behalf of the self-insurer, the cost of providing the rehabilitation, as a debt, from the worker.