COMMONWEALTH employees faking injury have been swindling taxpayers for millions of dollars in bogus compensation claims.
The public service lodged almost $220 million in personal injury claims last year and a flying squad of personal injury investigators found that compo claimants were still receiving payments when they were fit to work.
The Commonwealth workers compensation body, Comcare, investigated 179 injured workers at random and found that 60 – about one-third – were legitimate.
Another 22 had some capacity to work, while 103 of the workers had no legitimate claim for ongoing payments.
This sample alone cost taxpayers about $2.3 million and none of the fraudsters were prosecuted.
According to Comcare's annual report, injuries to all Commonwealth employees cost $218.48 million in 2002-03. This will be added to a backlog of claims totalling $1.4 billion.
There were 6347 compensation claims from a pool of 175,000 workers at about $20,000 per claim everywhere except Canberra, where bureaucrats pocketed an average of $27,000 per injury.
The growth area is psychological claims which cost about $80,000 or four times the average claim.
And working for a Commonwealth agency is almost twice as stressful as working for the ACT Government where psychological injury claims average just $50,000.
In a disturbing insight into escalating workers' compensation claims in the public service, the report found:
- THE costs for time off work are increasing;
CLAIMS are becoming higher each year, particularly for psychological injuries, and;
WORKERS' compensation is becoming more litigious.
The blowout in costs is worsened by the fact that an average of 1800 unsuccessful claimants appeal their decision, attracting legal bills of about $16,000 in each case.
Sprains and strains are the main types of injury and made up 26 per cent of the total payouts last year.
Occupational overuse syndrome (OOS) is the third most common injury after back strains and forms 21 per cent of the cost.
Also known as repetition strain injury (RSI), OOS is described as a lingering pain in muscles caused by performing the same tasks over and over. Sufferers range from builders' labourers to office workers.
Psychological injury accounted for just 5.6 per cent of claims but more than 20 per cent of the total cost.
It's a far cry from the days when timber cutters would deliberately lop off a finger with their axe to qualify for a modest one-off cash compensation payment.
"Claims for psychological injury, while small in number, have a significant impact on premiums because they usually involve higher medical, legal and other claim payments," the report says. Comcare also found that workers' compensation was becoming more litigious, with employees more prepared to involve lawyers.