Pre-injury average weekly earnings survey now open
SIRA is undertaking a post-implementation review of the 2019 workers compensation pre-injury average weekly earnings (PIAWE) reforms.
When someone is injured at work, they may be entitled to weekly payments. The calculation of these payments is based on the worker’s PIAWE.
Reforms to PIAWE
In 2012, the NSW Government introduced a new way to determine a worker’s average weekly earnings. Since then, concerns have been raised about complexity, inequity, and confusion around the way PIAWE is calculated and its impact on the payment of weekly benefits.
Reforms in 2019 aimed to provide a simpler and clearer method of determining PIAWE. They did so by improving transparency of arrangements, simplifying the calculation process, and improving the equity of determining PIAWE as it relates to a diverse workforce.
The new framework began in October 2019, and since then over 150,000 workers have had their PIAWE calculated using the simplified approach.
Post-implementation review
SIRA has commenced a post-implementation review of the 2019 PIAWE reforms.
The review will investigate how the new framework is being used and evaluate whether the reforms meet the intended objectives of increased simplicity, fairness and transparency.
The review findings may be used to identify and consider any system challenges for future improvement.
Have your say via the survey
As part of this review, SIRA has launched a survey to gather information about the varying experiences of PIAWE since the 2019 reforms from workers, employers, insurers, and people who review PIAWE calculations.
You are encouraged to tell us what you think via the PIAWE post-implementation review survey, before the survey closes on 6 May 11:59pm. All responses are anonymous.