OVERVIEW
SolvInjury's Compensation Calculator function has been designed to help you calculate weekly compensation entitlements payable to the injured worker, as well as track claimed and reimbursed amounts from your WorkCover. This article will help guide you through the functionality available in SolvInjury for Queensland-based claims.
To access the Compensation Calculator function, go to the Financials menu of a claim, then select Compensation Calculator.
UNDERSTANDING THE LEGISLATION
Before using the SolvInjury Compensation Calculator function, it is recommended that you familiarise yourself with the Queensland legislation and guidelines.
ENTER COMPENSATION DETAILS
In order for the system to calculate correctly, you will need to enter some details into the Compensation Calculator Details section.
Option A: If the worker has an Industrial Award or Agreement in place: Tick the Award checkbox and enter the Award Rate, Hourly Rate and Pre-Injury Hours. If applicable, you can choose the Pay Code from the drop-down menu (Pay Codes can be set in the Admin menu under Categories).
Option B: If the worker does not have an Industrial Award or Agreement in place: Enter the Normal Weekly Earnings, Hourly Rate and Pre-Injury Hours. If applicable, you can choose the Pay Code from the drop-down menu (Pay Codes can be set in the Admin menu under Categories).
If your company provides make-up pay in addition to statutory weekly compensation, tick the Make-Up Pay checkbox, then enter the number of weeks that make-up pay is applicable for and the amount that it will be paid to. NB: You may need to check the relevant award or EBA.
Once the relevant Compensation Calculator Details have been entered, click Save.
CALCULATE WEEKLY COMPENSATION
Before weekly compensation can be calculated, you must identify the first day that compensation is payable (i.e. typically the first day in which time lost occurred). The system will pre-populate this with the date of injury, however, if this isn't correct, select the appropriate date and click Save.
To calculate the weekly compensation payable, enter the total number of hours lost and the total number of hours worked for the whole week, in the applicable boxes under Next Entitlement Week.
Field | Definition |
Unfit | Enter any hours that were lost from work when the worker was unfit for any duties. |
Restricted Duties - Lost | Enter the hours lost from work when the worker was fit for restricted duties. |
Restricted Duties - Worked | Enter the hours actually worked whilst the worker was fit for restricted duties (i.e. on a RTW Plan). SolvInjury will estimate the earnings based on the hourly rate and hours, though this can be overwritten in the Earnings field. |
Non-Compensation | If applicable, enter any hours during the week that were not related to Workers Compensation. SolvInjury will estimate the earnings based on the hourly rate and hours, though this can be overwritten in the Earnings field. |
Once the hours have been entered, click Generate. If you wish to copy the hours from the previous Entitlement Week, select Copy from Previous.
SolvInjury will calculate the weekly compensation payable (in accordance with the relevant legislation and statutory maximums) and display the result under the Weekly Entitlements section. Rate reductions will be automatically applied at the relevant milestones.
Field | Definition |
CWE | Current Weekly Earnings - the total earnings for the entitlement week. |
Compensation | The compensation payable in accordance with the relevant legislation and statutory maximums. This is generally the amount expected to be reimbursed by WorkCover. |
Excess | The compensation payable that falls within the employer excess, not expected to be reimbursed by WorkCover. |
Make-Up | The amount payable over and above statutory compensation, due to the Award or EBA. |
Total Paid | The total amount payable to the worker (CWE + Compensation + Excess + Make-Up Pay). |
RECORD REIMBURSEMENT DETAILS
To keep track of weekly compensation reimbursements being claimed and recovered, simply click on the relevant switch next to the compensation week.
If a partial reimbursement is recovered, click on the "..." meatball menu and select Edit to manually update the actual amount received.
You can then report on amounts outstanding using the Compensation Reimbursements report in the Reports menu.
EXPORT WEEKLY ENTITLEMENTS
Under the Weekly Entitlement section, you have options available to allow you to export the details of the weekly entitlements. You can export all entitlements against that claim, by selecting the Export button, or you can export a select number of entitlements by selecting the tick box options down the right hand side of each row for the weeks you wish to export, then select the Export button. These will then export into an Excel spreadsheet.
DELETE WEEKLY ENTITLEMENTS
Under the Weekly Entitlements section, you are able to delete weeks as required. To delete a week, select the '...' icon to the right of the row, then select Delete (as seen below). Only the latest Weekly Entitlement is able to be deleted this way.
Weekly Entitlements can be deleted in bulk, if required, by selecting multiple Weekly Entitlements and using the 'trash' icon.
Some rules for how this works apply:
Only consecutive weeks can be deleted together, and the latest week must always be included when using the bulk delete functionality.
For accounts with Compensation Approval enabled, users will have the option to null all Weekly Payments linked to the deleted weeks.
EMAIL WEEKLY COMPENSATION DETAILS
In the Email Entitlement Information section, you can email the Weekly Compensation details to an email (i.e. to your Insurer or payroll department). The weekly entitlement information will be sent as an attachment, in an Excel format. Similar to if you were exporting the entitlement information.
Select the Start and End date range for the information you want to send, then if you would like to record the entitlement weeks that are being emailed as claimed, tick the 'Mark reimbursements as Claimed' checkbox. Once updated, select 'Email'
From here, enter the recipient’s email address in the ‘To’ field.
If you would like the outgoing email to include documents that are attached to weekly entitlements, select the relevant Attachments from the Attachments drop down.
Click Email to send the email. A copy of the email will be stored in the Notes section.
OVER 15% PI
Where week count surpasses 104 weeks (2 years), compensation will depend on the degree of impairment. An 'Over 15% PI' checkbox is used to determine the calculation to be used.
If the Week Count is > 104 and 'Over 15% PI' is not selected, then the Maximum Compensation is determined by the relevant Pension Rate for that Weekly Entitlement's date.
If the Week Count is > 104 and 'Over 15% PI' is selected, the calculation will be the same as prior to Week 104 (> 26).
Tips
In the Next Entitlement Week section, you can manually overwrite the applicable earnings if the automatically generated amount is incorrect.
SolvInjury will automatically keep a week count in the Weekly Entitlements Section, and will step down the entitlement rate at the relevant milestone in accordance with the legislation.
You can edit an entitlement week by clicking the edit icon. This will open up a section that allows you to edit any of the hours or amounts for the entitlement week. Please note, that if editing an entitlement week, the system will NOT recalculate the entitlement amounts, it will only manually update to reflect what you have adjusted.