NSW’s insurance regulator has censured icare after up to 13,915 workers with compensation claims did not receive their full entitlement.

icare told the State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) at the end of November that total remediation is estimated to be up to $14.7 million. It pledged to recompense affected workers by June.  

The state-owned insurer advised SIRA in late 2022 of a potential non-compliance issue in the indexation of pre-injury average weekly earnings on claims managed before the introduction of the Guidewire claims management system.  

icare failed to correctly apply indexation on Guidewire from its inception in 2019 until October 2022.

SIRA says it has “issued a letter of censure for the failure of the Guidewire claims management system to index workers’ weekly payments in line with the legislative requirements.”

Last August, SIRA directed icare to analyse all claims managed on Guidewire.

“SIRA’s primary concern was that workers with claims managed on the Guidewire system were not receiving their full weekly entitlement,” the regulator said. “SIRA will continue to supervise icare’s remediation plan through to completion.”

SIRA has sought assurance from all other workers’ compensation insurers in NSW that indexation has been correctly applied.