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WC Self-Assessment
Map your SRC Act practice, AI included. An educational self-reflection tool for Comcare practitioners, with a personalised PDF report.
Framework Coverage
SRC Act 1988
The legislative framework for Commonwealth workers compensation
AI Tools in Claims
Where AI adds value and where governance is required
ART Review Rights
Review and appeal rights under the SRC Act
Learning Module: LM-W01
AI for SRC Act Claims Practice, a full assessed course with a 30-question quiz
Articles
Practice Guidance & Analysis
Six Tables, Five Clocks, One Stale Rate File
Comcare's statutory rates for compensation sit across six tables. Five of them carry a date in the year, including one that moves in February and August rather than on 1 July, and the sixth has not changed since September 2019. Any AI reference file that embeds the numbers inherits every one of those clocks at once.
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The Recovery Is Sitting in the Mechanism of Injury
Part IV of the SRC Act builds a third party recovery machine on top of two notification duties that belong to the claimant, not to you. Nothing you do starts either clock. The only indicator you reliably control is the one already sitting in the mechanism of injury you collected at intake.
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Section 30 Is the Determination Nobody Asks You to Make
Section 30 obliges the authority to redeem low weekly incapacity payments without any application from the employee, so qualifying files are found by screening or not at all. AI can run the screen and assemble the stability evidence. The satisfaction, the figure and the determination stay with the delegate.
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Early Support Before Liability: Track the Process, Not the Person
Early support should move without waiting for liability, but its data must not become a shadow claim assessment. A two-lane AI board can track voluntary support and human action while keeping evidence, consent, privacy and every liability judgement under separate human control.
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Provider Invoice Anomalies Are Queries, Not Allegations
An invoice exception can tell you that two controlled records do not align. It cannot tell you why, prove misconduct or decide what section 16 requires. The safe workflow builds a source-anchored query packet and leaves every payment and conduct decision with an authorised human.
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Certificate Review Dates Are Workflow Triggers, Not Capacity Decisions
A passed review date tells you that the certificate record needs human attention. It does not prove that capacity, entitlement or work arrangements changed. A three-state AI queue can expose the gap without converting a document date into a claim outcome.
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A Reconsideration Request Needs an Issue Map, Not an Outcome Prediction
A section 62 request is stronger when each challenged term is tied to the original reason, evidence, alleged omission and requested change. AI can build that traceable map. It must not invent grounds, assess credibility or forecast what the reconsideration officer will decide.
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Plain-English Determinations Need a Reader Test, Not New Reasons
Plain language is not permission to improve a delegate's logic after sign-off. Freeze the human decision, test whether a recipient can find four essential answers, then permit only presentation edits that survive a semantic checksum and human approval.
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Your AI Register Is Not Licence Evidence Until It Maps to the SRCC Criteria
An approved AI use case records an intention. Licence evidence must show which existing obligation is engaged, what control operated, what exception occurred, who owned it and what independent assurance found. A criterion-to-evidence crosswalk makes that chain inspectable.
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Section 39 Requests Need a Branching Evidence Map, Not One Checklist
An aid can be medical treatment, rehabilitation support or something outside both routes. AI can expose the branches and assemble the evidence, but a human must select the statutory path, decide entitlement and preserve the reasons for that choice.
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TOOCS Coding Is Data Quality, Not a Liability Finding
A TOOCS code can improve national data and still prove nothing about liability. Use AI after human entry to test version, evidence traceability and cross-field consistency. Keep every correction with a human coder and every statutory finding with the delegate.
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A Complaint Is Not a Reconsideration: AI Can Route the Issue, Not Close It
A complaint can seek better service, challenge a determination and raise a licence concern in the same paragraph. AI can expose those parallel pathways, but a human must classify the message, protect every clock and approve every response.
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A Defensible Claims Audit Sample Starts With the Population, Not an AI Risk Score
An AI-selected list of unusual claims may be useful for investigation, but it cannot represent a claims management system. Start with the frozen population and Comcare's published sample bands, preserve a representative core, and keep every targeted file, substitution and finding under auditor control.
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Section 54 Intake: AI Can Find Gaps, Not Move the Clock
An intake model that merges receipt, claim compliance and clock status can hide delay behind a neat dashboard. Keep those states separate. AI can reconcile dates and expose missing evidence, but a human must decide section 54 compliance and every lawful exclusion.
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Backdated Incapacity Needs Three Ledgers, Not One Payroll Fix
A retrospective incapacity determination can affect claim payments, payroll transactions and leave records at once, and those records do not carry the same legal meaning. AI should reconcile three ledgers and expose variances, while authorised claims and payroll professionals approve and post every correction.
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Statement Summaries Need Source IDs, Not a Neat Story
A polished narrative can hide who said what, where it appears and what remains contested. A source-level assertion ledger keeps each proposition attached to the original statement, so AI assists evidence navigation while the authorised decision-maker retains every factual and credibility judgement.
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Normal Weekly Earnings: AI Can Assemble the Evidence, Not Set the Figure
Most NWE mistakes start before the formula: a missing allowance rule, a distorted pay period, or overtime with no evidence of being required. AI can expose those gaps, but the relevant period and section 8 figure remain human determinations.
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A Determination Evidence-Check Skill File Under Section 14
An advanced SRC Act skill file that audits a draft determination's evidence chain against sections 5A, 5B and 14, flags hedged language and gaps, and never touches the decision itself.
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AI Can Run the Section 14 Clock. It Cannot Decide.
Since 1 April 2024 a determining authority has had 20 calendar days to determine an initial injury claim, 60 for a disease claim and 30 to decide a claimant's request for reconsideration. The count can be frozen, but only by specific statutory triggers. That is a tracking problem AI is genuinely good at, sitting next to a determination it must never touch.
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A Claim Chronology Skill File Built for De-Identification
A reusable six-part skill file that builds claim chronologies from de-identified material only, tags every entry to a source document, flags gaps and conflicts, and never states a view on liability.
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Section 57 Examinations: AI Can Build the Referral, Not Make the Call
Since June 2024 a decision to require a section 57 medical examination is a reviewable determination, and since October 2024 it must comply with a mandatory Guide built around ethical, transparent and accountable decision-making. That raises the stakes on the referral paperwork. AI can assemble the de-identified brief, draft the question set and produce a Guide-aligned record, while the decision to require the examination stays a human judgement.
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The Medical Report Now Has to Declare Its AI
Since 2 March 2026 an expert report prepared for the Administrative Review Tribunal has to state whether it contains generative AI content, identify that content and the applications used, and certify the expert checked all of it. Clause 3.7 is the part claims practitioners have missed. Reports commissioned during the claim end up in the Tribunal's documents and are read against a standard they were never written to meet.
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Preventing Double Payment Under the SRC Act: AI Can Flag the Overlap, Not Calculate the Offset
The SRC Act guards against paying twice for the same injury: through third-party damages, an overlapping state workers compensation claim, or a state general compensation scheme. AI can flag a file for a possible overlap early and build the chronology of the parallel claim. Calculating the offset or recovery amount is a determination that stays with the case manager.
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Reasonable Excuse Under the SRC Act: AI Can Structure the Analysis, Not Make the Finding
One test runs through five sections of the SRC Act: whether a claimant who failed to comply had a reasonable excuse. AI can structure that analysis on a de-identified file, sort the facts against the subjective and objective limbs and flag missing evidence. The reasonable-excuse finding, and any suspension or refusal that follows, stays with the human delegate.
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Two Doctors Disagree: AI Can Map the Conflict, Not Resolve It
When a treating doctor and an independent examiner disagree, the delegate has to weigh two medical opinions and determine liability on the balance of probabilities. AI can build the comparison so you spend your time on the judgement, not the sorting. Here is a de-identified workflow that keeps the weighing, and the decision, with the delegate.
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AI Can Map a Section 29 Household Services Claim. It Cannot Decide What Is Reasonable
AI can organise a de-identified section 29 household services claim by task, pre-injury contribution, post-injury capacity, household composition, family contribution, disruption and cost. It cannot apply the word reasonable. This guide gives you the evidence map, the prompt and the human decision line.
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AI Can Organise a Section 36 Rehabilitation Assessment. It Cannot Choose the Program
AI can build a de-identified source register, chronology, evidence map and question list for a section 36 rehabilitation assessment under the SRC Act. It cannot conduct the statutory assessment, require an examination, select the assessor or choose the rehabilitation program. This guide maps where the machine stops and the people named by the Act take over.
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AI Can Build the Section 16 Picture, Not Make the Call
Section 16 of the SRC Act pays for medical treatment only where it was reasonable to obtain and the cost is appropriate. That is a judgement, not a fact. This guide gives you the prompts, the Monday workflow and the checklist so AI assembles the picture while a delegated officer makes the call.
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AI and the Reasonable Administrative Action Exclusion: Map the Actions, Keep the Judgement
A practical guide to where AI genuinely helps with a section 5A reasonable administrative action determination, and exactly where the work stops being organisation and becomes human judgement.
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AI and Permanent Impairment: Organise the Evidence, Keep the Judgement
A permanent impairment claim under section 24 lives or dies on the medical evidence. AI can assemble, de-identify and structure that evidence against the approved Guide, and surface the gaps. It cannot assess the impairment or make the determination. Here is the workflow.
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Build a WC Evidence Chronology Tool Without Outsourcing Judgement
A practical pattern for using an LLM to build an offline, de-identified workers compensation evidence chronology tool that organises facts while the delegate keeps every SRC Act decision.
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AI Can Draft Recovery Conversation Scripts, but the Listening Stays Human
A practical guide to using AI to draft motivational-interviewing-informed scripts, talking points and follow-up messages for recovery-at-work conversations. De-identification first, the MI frame in the prompt, and a human reviewer before any words reach an injured employee.
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Prompt Libraries Make WC AI Safer Only When Human Review Comes First
A practical SRC Act article on de-identification, placeholder prompt libraries, file-note drafting and human review controls for workers compensation communications.
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Leveraging AI to assist dissecting the SRC Act Review
A practitioner workflow for employers to dissect the December 2025 SRC Act Review with AI tooling. Project setup, four prompt patterns, submission scaffolding, and the two human review gates that keep the work defensible.
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AI Can Organise Recovery-at-Work Information, but People Must Decide
A practical SRC Act article on using AI to support suitable duties and recovery-at-work planning without replacing evidence, consultation or human judgement.
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Predictive Analytics and Claims Triage: A Risk Analysis for Scheme Operators
Predictive triage models promise faster decisions and better outcomes. They also concentrate legal, ethical, and procedural fairness risk. Here is how to think about both.
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Treating Practitioner Reports and AI: Where the Workflow Helps and Where It Hurts
AI is a strong summariser of treating practitioner reports and a poor judge of medical evidence. The line between the two is the difference between speed and risk.
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The Incapacity Cross-Check Workflow: AI as a Calculation Auditor
Section 19 calculations are arithmetic-heavy and error-prone. AI shines as a second pair of eyes, not as the primary calculator. Here is the workflow.
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AI Tools in Workers Compensation Claims: Where Value, Where Risk, Where Governance
AI is now operating across five workflows in workers compensation claims. The value is real. The governance baseline is non-negotiable. A practitioner's map of where each tool fits, what it actually does, and what to never do.
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ART Review Rights Under the SRC Act: A Practitioner's Map
Review and appeal rights under the SRC Act 1988 changed in October 2024 when the AAT became the Administrative Review Tribunal. A practitioner's map of the three review tiers, the timeframes that apply, and the place AI evidence is taking in workers compensation matters before the ART.
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The De-Identification Toolkit for Case Managers Working With AI
A working toolkit for case managers who use AI inside live claim files. Five identifier categories, a placeholder convention, and a daily desk routine.
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Reading the Reasoning Trail: A Case Note on AI Drafted Determinations
An illustrative case profile that mirrors live ART concerns: when an AI drafted determination cannot be unwound to its underlying reasoning, the determination itself is at risk.
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SRC Act and AI Assisted Determinations: A Practitioner Framework
AI can draft a determination in minutes, but the SRC Act still demands a qualified human decision maker. Here is the practitioner framework that keeps both true.
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Put it into practice
Case Law Tracker
SRC Act and ART decisions
In development. A tracker covering ART decisions on liability, incapacity, and rehabilitation under the SRC Act 1988, with practitioner notes on how AI-assisted determinations are being treated. The first edition publishes when there is a meaningful body of post-October 2024 ART decisions to analyse. Read ART Review Rights Under the SRC Act for the practitioner map in the meantime.
Tools
Practical instruments
WC Self-Assessment
Map your SRC Act practice capability across your dimensions, with AI leverage woven through. 15-25 minutes, free, anonymous, personalised PDF report.
AI Readiness Assessment
Bespoke role-specific question banks for case managers, WC managers, and claims and compliance officers.
Learning Module: LM-W01
AI for SRC Act Claims Practice. A full assessed course with a 30-question quiz, from de-identification to determination drafting.
Claude Projects Configuration
A ready-to-paste Claude Projects set-up for WC practice: instruction text, files to attach, first prompts, and what never goes in, verified against the platform's documentation.
TheAICommand WC AI Manual
A 52-page PDF taking you from nothing to competent with AI under the SRC Act, in seven parts: the rules, the tools, nine desk workflows, twelve prompts, and the governance controls.
Disclaimer. Content on this page is general information only. It is not legal, compliance, or professional advice. The SRC Act 1988 should always be consulted directly. Practitioners should refer to current Comcare guidelines and seek legal advice where required. Nothing on this page constitutes a formal determination or interpretation of law.