Our research

Transitions Study

Our partners

The Transitions Project is funded by the State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) of New South Wales. The following organisations provide data, advice, and linkage services to support the project:

The Centre for Health Record Linkage (CHeReL), the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), the New South Wales Department of Health,  the Commonwealth Department of Social Services and Department of Human Services, and the Sax Institute.

What is the challenge

In 2012, the New South Wales workers’ compensation scheme introduced a new maximum of five years of income replacement. The first group of workers affected by this policy had their income benefits stopped in December 2017. Some injured workers may have returned to work, though this is uncommon in workers with very long-duration claims. Others may access other sources of income support such as social welfare payments, though these are typically less generous and the transition between benefit schemes can be disruptive.

In Australia there is almost no research on this transition between sources of income support for injured workers. The impact of the New South Wales policy reforms have not been formally assessed. Simply put, we don’t know what happened to the injured workers whose workers’ compensation income payments were ceased.

Our approach

To determine the impact of time-capped income replacement benefits on healthcare and welfare service use, we link several administrative datasets including workers’ compensation, hospital and emergency department appearances, medical services, pharmaceuticals, and social welfare. We compare healthcare and welfare use in the 18 month period after to the introduction of the New South Wales policy reforms in injured workers with time-capped benefits to other injured workers with long-duration claims (+2 years) and to members of the community at large.

What will the project achieve?

By identifying how long-duration benefit cessation affects future welfare access, we will provide much-needed evidence on how common it is for people to transition between sources of income support, and who is more likely to make such transitions. Additionally, analysing healthcare service use will shed a light on the health effects of the New South Wales policy reform

What it means for workers’ health and insurance systems

Time-capped income benefits are now common in Australian workers’ compensation schemes. This project will enable legislators, regulators and others to understand the impact of major policy reform, and to better identify injured workers who will need extra support as they transition out of compensation schemes due to time-capped benefits. The findings may galvanise better communications between systems, as better transitions could improve outcomes and reduce costs.

Communicating our findings

Findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals, and study manuscripts will be archived in Open Access repositories. Findings will be presented at local, national and international forums and via social and general media. Study findings will also be reported to the study funder and regulators of the New South Wales workers’ compensation scheme, SIRA.