NEARLY 3000 local people who suffered injury at work in the past decade have been contacted to have their compensation payments reassessed.
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icare, the State workers compensation manager, has written to more than 22,000 people in the North Coast and New England areas, as some may have been underpaid.
This includes 2877 people in the Kempsey, Port Macquarie and Taree postcode areas.
icare was established in 2015 to manage workers' compensation claims.
In 2012, new legislation was introduced in NSW which governed how compensation payments were calculated.
"It was only after icare implemented a new online claims management system that we were able to assess retrospectively how weekly workers' compensation payments had been calculated by insurers," an icare spokesperson said.
"So, in 2019, we reviewed a sample of payments and found some incorrect calculations. In some instances, this may have resulted in people being underpaid. As a result, the review and remediation program was designed and implemented."
The review program covers weekly payments made between 2012 and 2019.
Identified workers should have received a letter from icare outlining the reassessment process.
The spokesperson said the review of historic payments had indicated earnings information used to determine weekly compensation payments was in some cases not provided to the insurer at the time.
"There are 2877 workers in these areas (Kempsey, Port Macquarie and Taree) who have been contacted to have their past compensation payments reassessed to ensure they have received the correct entitlements," the spokesperson said.
"As at 30 July 2021, icare has reassessed some 8604 eligible claims from across NSW. A total of 281 workers have found to have been underpaid a total of just over $3 million in weekly benefits."
For more information visit www.icare.nsw.gov.au/assessment or call 6714 8003.
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