Entitlements following a work-related death

Eligibility

If you are a dependant of a current or former employee of an Australian Government agency or statutory authority, or of a self-insured licensee, who died as a result of a work-related injury or illness, you may be entitled to compensation.

You are a dependant if you financially depended on a person, either fully or partly, at the time of their death and:

• you are their spouse, parent, step-parent, father‑in‑law, mother‑in‑law, grandparent, child, step-child, grandchild, sibling, or half-sibling, or
• you stood in the position of their parent, or
• they stood in the position of parent to you.

Type of payments available

As a dependant, you may be eligible for:

• a lump sum payment
• fortnightly payment for each child aged under 16, or aged between 16 and 25 who is receiving full-time education and is not working
• payment or reimbursement of funeral expenses
• medical expenses relating to the compensable injury incurred prior to the death of the employee may also be payable to the Estate.

For details of these payments, see Statutory rates.

How to make a claim

Employee of an Australian Government agency or statutory authority

1. Complete the Work-related Death Compensation Claim form (PDF, 260.9 KB).

   Attach documents to support your claim:

   • a certified true copy of the death certificate and/or Coroner's report
   • evidence of the person’s employment, such as payroll records
   • a certified true copy of the marriage certificate for a husband or wife who is a dependant
   • a certified true copy of a birth certificate for any child who is a dependant
   • copies of any other documents that help show relationship and dependency. This can include a rental agreement, rates notice or bank statements in joint names.
2. Submit the form and related documents to Comcare:

• email to general.enquiries@comcare.gov.au
• mail to Comcare, GPO Box 9905, Canberra ACT 2601.

Exceptions

Employee of a self-insured licensee

If the employee worked for an organisation which is a self-insured licensee, such as Telstra or Australia Post, a staff member in the organisation or a third-party provider manages the claim. Speak with the human resources team in the organisation for more information.

See the SRCC website for a complete List of current and former self-insured licensees.

After we receive your claim

We acknowledge and register your application within two working days of receiving your application.

If you don’t receive this response, email general.enquiries@comcare.gov.au or call us on 1300 366 979 and ask to speak with the Specialised Claims team.

We may need to contact other people or organisations while we assess your claim. This can include:

• health professionals, hospitals or other health institutions
• the employer (see Work-related Death Compensation Claim information for employers (PDF, 178.3 KB)
• insurers
• relevant third parties we consider may have contributed to the injury or illness.

We contact you regularly, or your solicitor if you are legally represented, to provide an update on the progress of your claim.

We make every effort to determine your claim as quickly as possible. However, delays or hold-ups can occur when we need further information to assess a claim.

We consider each case on its merits and once we have all available evidence, we make a determination.

We provide the decision to you in writing and we also call you. Contact us at any time if you want to discuss or clarify any aspect of the determination letter.

Possible outcomes of a claim

Following assessment of your claim, we can decide to:

• accept liability for death of the person and accept liability for payment of lump sum and funeral expenses
• accept liability for death of the person and accept liability for payment of funeral expenses, but do not accept liability for payment of a lump sum (if there are no financially-dependent dependants)
• accept liability for fortnightly benefits to dependent children, or
• not accept liability for death of the deceased.

If you disagree with the determination

If you disagree with our determination, you can ask us to reconsider it. You need to submit an application for reconsideration within 30 days of our determination or apply for an extension of time.

The employer of the person who died is also able to apply for a reconsideration if they do not agree with our determination.

For more information about this process, see Apply for a reconsideration.

For more information

View our Financial Support Following a Work-Related Death factsheet (PDF, 821.1 KB) to understand your entitlements.

If you are unsure whether you have entitlements under the SRC Act, please contact Comcare’s Specialised Claims team on 1300 366 979 or by email Specialised.Claims@comcare.gov.au.