Workers’ Compensation Benefits and Lifetime Care and Support
From 1 July 2016, if you’re a private sector worker in the ACT and you’re catastrophically injured, as a result of, or in the course of your employment, you may be eligible for the Lifetime Care and Support Scheme (LTCS Scheme).
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What is the Lifetime Care and Support Scheme?
The Scheme is a no-fault insurance scheme that seeks to ensure that people who are catastrophically injured in a work accident or motor vehicle accident in the ACT can manage their ongoing care needs into the future.
Under the Scheme, if you need lifetime care as a result of a catastrophic injury you have the opportunity to access long-term care and support.
The introduction of the Scheme is part of the ACT Government’s implementation of a nationally agreed scheme, which will transform the way the ACT community supports people with catastrophic injuries, their families and carers.
Who is eligible?
The LTCS Scheme will apply to catastrophic injuries that occur from 1 July 2016 resulting from a workplace accident and will include all types of injuries currently covered under the LTCS Scheme, such as spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injury, amputations, severe burns and permanent blindness.
What the LTCS Scheme covers
Treatment and care needs covered by the Scheme include:
- medical treatment (including pharmaceutical treatment)
- dental treatment
- rehabilitation
- ambulance transportation
- respite care
- attendant care services
- aids and appliances
- prostheses
- education and vocational training
- home and transport modification; and
- workplace and educational facility modifications.
If you’re accepted as a lifetime participant in the LTCS Scheme as a result of a work injury, you can expect your reasonable and necessary treatment and care needs to be met for life.
How will injured workers benefit from being covered by the LTCS Scheme?
The LTCS Scheme aims to give catastrophically injured workers who qualify to join, the best opportunity to recover and participate in society through provision of specialised early intervention medical and rehabilitation care.
Injured workers will have their treatment and care coordinated through a scheme which is geared to offering specialised care and support to people with complex and serious injuries.
The LTCS Scheme provides the catastrophically injured worker a continuum of care during their whole life with their treatment and care needs met in a timely manner without the added stress of litigation or managing a financial settlement.
Do I still need to go through the normal workers’ compensation claims process if I apply to join the LTCS Scheme?
Yes. The LTCS Scheme covers reasonable and necessary lifetime treatment and care for catastrophic injuries.
It does not provide income support such as weekly compensation payments, impairment payments, or any other benefits that you may be entitled to under the Workers Compensation Act 1951.
All of your rights, obligations, and entitlements apart from treatment and care under the LTCS Scheme remain under the Workers Compensation Act 1951.
Your application to join the LTCS Scheme is not a substitute for, and cannot be used to obtain, compensation under the Workers Compensation Act 1951 or any other avenue that may be available to you.
What happens to my workers’ compensation claim when I apply to join the LTCS scheme?
Your claim remains managed by your workers’ compensation insurers and your employer. You are still required to comply with all of the normal workers’ compensation procedures.
This includes providing a medical certificate to support ongoing benefits, including wage entitlements.
The LTCS Scheme cannot provide you with advice or assist you with entitlement to benefits under the workers’ compensation legislation.
Contact your workers’ compensation insurer or employer if you have any questions about your workers’ compensation rights.