BackA NSW Ombudsman investigation has identified failures within Insurance and iCare NSW’s (icare’s) management of workers compensation premiums between 2017 and 2023.
Tabled in NSW Parliament today, the Investigation into icare’s processing of actual wage declarations and hindsight adjustments to workers compensation premiums found that icare engaged in unreasonable conduct by failing to exercise its statutory functions within a reasonable timeframe.
Under the Workers Compensation Act, employers pay an initial premium at the start of their policy period, based on estimated wages. This is later adjusted once employers report their actual wages, a process known as a "hindsight adjustment".
The icare investigation was prompted by complaints from six insured employers who experienced significant delays in receiving premium adjustments following their wage declarations.
The Ombudsman found that these delays were compounded by icare's systems not being adequately configured to process hindsight adjustments until 2023. Despite inheriting a backlog of approximately 55,000 legacy adjustments in 2017 and being aware of system limitations, icare failed to implement necessary fixes or prioritise the backlog in a timely manner.
“While there is no legislated timeframe for icare to process actual wage declarations, as a general principle, all statutory functions must be exercised reasonably, and this includes in respect of timeframes,” said Acting NSW Ombudsman Chantal Snell.
“The financial impacts of receiving delayed and multiple hindsight adjustments were significant and unreasonable on employers.”
The report found that the delays were particularly problematic for smaller businesses that had already finalised their accounts for previous financial years and had forecasted budgets that could not support significant amendments.
In 2025, icare implemented a remediation plan and has since advised it has processed all outstanding actual wage declarations for active policies between 2019 and 2024.
While acknowledging the remediations made, the Ombudsman’s report makes several recommendations, including that icare should formally apologise to affected complainants and negotiate flexible payment plans that account for the financial circumstances of impacted employers.
The report also recommends that icare should provide the Ombudsman with ongoing compliance reporting and audits over the next 12 months to ensure hindsight adjustments continue to be processed in accordance with the timeliness metrics and controls identified in the agency’s remediation plan.
To read the report, kindly click here.
Source: Office of the NSW Ombudsman
