NSW Workers Compensation Claims and Disputes: 2024-25 Numbers

How many new claims NSW's two big workers compensation schemes received in 2024-25, and how long claims-related complaints took icare to resolve, straight from icare's own Annual Report.

Two schemes cover almost all NSW workers compensation claims: the Nominal Insurer (NI), for private-sector employers, and the Treasury Managed Fund (TMF), for the public sector. Most allied health treaters and workplace rehabilitation providers on this directory deal with NI claims. The figures on this page come from icare's own 2024-25 Annual Report, still the latest published edition when we last checked. Latest available: FY2024-25, verified 9 October 2026.

New claims received in 2024-25

The Nominal Insurer scheme received 71,000 new injured worker claims and paid $4.2 billion in claims benefits to workers.

The Treasury Managed Fund scheme received 22,000 new claims and paid $1.7 billion in claims benefits to workers.

When an NI claim becomes a complaint

Not every claim runs smoothly. icare's annual report separately breaks down NI claims-related complaints (as distinct from complaints about a policy) by who managed them and how complex the complaint was. If you are dealing with a declined claim or treatment request yourself, see the dispute and review process rather than the numbers below.

Claims service providers resolved 13,806 non-complex NI claims-related complaints in an average of 2 business days, and reported 0 complex claims-related complaints.

icare handled the claims-related complaints classed complex or escalated directly: 778 of them, taking 13.6 business days to resolve on average, compared with the 528 non-complex claims-related complaints icare also handled directly, which took 3.4 business days on average.

What these numbers don't cover

These are icare's own reported totals for the 2024-25 financial year, not a live count, and "complex" is icare's own classification, not defined further in the source. The complaint figures above cover the NI scheme only; icare's annual report separately reports smaller complaint counts for the TMF and Insurance for NSW schemes, not included here. "Average business days to resolve" is exactly what icare calls it: an average measured in business days, not a median or a calendar-day count, so it doesn't show the spread between the fastest and slowest cases. This page doesn't replace the statutory timeframes insurers must meet when processing your claim, or the return-to-work process, which are different measures entirely.

icare's Annual Report 2024-25, uploaded 1 December 2025, was still the latest published edition on icare's own annual reports page as of the sources-checked date above, listed ahead of a "Previous icare Annual Reports and Financials" heading with nothing newer beneath it. icare usually publishes its report several months after the financial year closes, so the next edition was not yet out. If you're reading this well after that review date, check icare's annual reports page for a newer one before relying on the figures above.

Get matched