Work-related violence
You can apply for some financial assistance from Victim Assist Queensland if injured by an act of violence at work, on the way to or from work, or while on a work break.
- Requirements
- Injuries we consider
- Financial assistance
- How to claim
- Timeframe
- Information for police officers
Requirements
You can only apply for financial assistance if you were directly injured by violence that was committed in Queensland.
Make sure you follow all these steps:
- Get medical attention for your injuries and ask your doctor to provide a work capacity certificate or another relevant medical certificate.
- Report the incident to your workplace.
- Report the violence to police.
- Make a claim through your workers’ compensation provider (which could be WorkCover Queensland or another provider) and await the result.
- After your workers’ compensation claim has been assessed and finalised, you can apply for some financial assistance from us.
Exceptions
Some exceptions may apply for the following victims:
- self-employed, a sole trader, or a business owner who are not self-insured
- witnesses who were psychologically injured by seeing or hearing work-related violence
- close family members of people who have died in a work-related homicide.
These victims should email VictimAssist@justice.qld.gov.au for advice before applying.
‘Report only’ notifications
Making a ‘report only’ notification to your compensation provider about what happened is not the same as applying for workers’ compensation.
You need to make an actual workers’ compensation claim and receive a decision on your application before you can apply for financial assistance from us.
Injuries we consider
You can only make a claim if you were directly injured by the violence.
We can consider physical and psychological injuries. In some circumstances, we can also consider other adverse impacts.
Your claim cannot be based solely on:
- pre-existing injuries (unless directly aggravated by the violence)
- general aches and pains
- general stress and trauma
- exposure to bodily fluids like blood, urine or saliva (unless it has directly caused a disease).
Learn more about providing information about your injuries.
Financial assistance
We will only be able to pay financial assistance for some things, which are not usually covered by workers’ compensation.
This may include a one-off special assistance payment. Special assistance payments range from $3,000 to $15,000. You may also be able to claim damage to clothing.
You must tell us about any other claims you make about the incident, including what the workers’ compensation provider agreed to pay for and how much they paid. Accepting a lump sum offer from your workers’ compensation provider may reduce the amount of financial assistance we can give you.
How to claim
After your workers’ compensation claim has been finalised, you can apply for financial assistance from us. You to need to:
- ensure our reporting requirements have been met
- complete the application form and attach
- information about your injuries (this could be a copy of the information you provided to your workers’ compensation provider)
- identity documents.
Timeframe
All applications for work-related violence are assessed in the order we receive them.
Due to the high number of claims already queued, it may be many months before we are able to assess your application and pay approved expenses.
We need to:
- get information from Queensland Police Service (QPS) to verify the details of the act of violence
- contact your workers’ compensation provider to verify the details of your claim
- cross-check information against court records, where necessary
- get information about your injuries, if not already provided.
The time required to do this varies case-by-case. You can check the progress of your claim online.
Once you receive your ‘notice of decision’ and your claim is approved, electronic payments will be deposited into your nominated bank account within 10 business days.
Information for police officers
If you are a victim of a criminal offence committed against you while working as a QPS officer (including during meal breaks or while travelling to or from work), you may be entitled to assistance from us.
You must follow the steps outlined above.
Do not include copies of any police documents. We will access these through official channels. It is unlawful for you to supply police documents directly to Victim Assist Queensland.