What happens when traffic accident compensation stops?
Dr Shannon Gray works with our School’s Insurance Work and Health Group, a team that primarily undertakes research into policy and practices underpinning Australia’s public compensation scheme systems. She’s recently been awarded a DECRA grant to investigate the movement of Australians injured in road traffic accidents through the established benefits systems.
Her aim is to identify optimal policy settings that deliver the best outcomes for Australians injured in road traffic crashes (RTCs). Based on the latest economic study of the cost of RTCs, a reduction of one per cent in the burden could save the Australian economy $297 million per annum.
In the immediate aftermath of a traffic accident where someone cannot work, compensation benefits are often paid out via state-based compulsory third party agencies. In Victoria, this function is fulfilled by the Transport Accident Commission (TAC), while in New South Wales it is regulated by the State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA). After a pre-determined time, those benefits cease, and people needing longer-term financial support are likely to transition to Commonwealth Government funded social security payments, administered by Centrelink
There is broad variation in the eligibility criteria between schemes, and the amounts and durations of benefit payments. The systems are not always easy to navigate. The transition period, between state-based schemes and Centrelink, is a particular vulnerability, and anecdotal evidence suggests a number of people may be falling through the cracks, and not getting the payments they are entitled to, and may badly need.
To complicate matters, involvement in and recovery from road traffic accidents is known to be significantly influenced by social factors, including household income, employment status and family and social connectedness.
Shannon’s research will capture the details of the transition from State- to Commonwealth-administered benefit schemes, so that we can better understand how many people are falling through the cracks, and some of the attributes and social drivers particular to them.
She says, “This DECRA-funded research will drive two discrete projects which will both inform our understanding in this space. The first will use data from the existing REcovery after Serious Trauma – Outcomes, Resources use and patient Experiences (RESTORE) study, a prospective cohort study of traumatically injured Victorians run by Professor Belinda Gabbe’s Pre-hospital, Emergency and Trauma Research Unit. This will allow me to determine the prevalence of transition between schemes.
“The second study exploits a natural experiment made possible by recent reforms to New South Wales’ state based RTC compensation system. In 2017 they changed from a common law system, where only those not-at-fault could receive lump sum payments, to a hybrid common law/no-fault system, where all injured people can access benefits for six months after injury, and those not-at-fault can continue collecting benefits for up to two years post-accident.
“I’ll link data from their state compensation scheme and Victoria’s no-fault TAC system to Centrelink data, the Medicare Benefits Schedule, and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to explore the social factors that underpin poorer compensation system outcomes in NSW, and how that compares to the Victorian experience, that has remained the same over that timeframe.
“By doing this I am aiming to identify the policy settings that maximise RTC compensation scheme performance, and deliver the best social function of RTC survivors. By identifying groups of people at-risk of worse outcomes, I hope that in future they can be identified early on, and that interventions can be implemented to assist them sooner.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunity the DECRA grant has given me to pursue this research. I think it’s a great example of how public health policy and systems can be influenced to protect the outcomes for some particularly vulnerable people, and save the economy money at the same time.”