Act Penalties For Failure To Disclose Damages Action

Dependants must advise Comcare within 7 days of damages action commencing.  If not, they incur a $500.00 penalty under section 46 or 47 of the Act.

There are also other legislated penalties which relate to advising of settlement.

The mandatory monetary penalties involved where such advice is not provided are:

While the initial claim form and 'Notice of Rights' information on the back of each determination provides information about “what you should tell us”, including penalties for non compliance, if notification is not provided to Comcare, it is unlikely that Comcare would pursue the dependant for penalty monies.

Effectively, penalties are included in the Act more as a warning that it is important for a dependant to keep Comcare informed of damages proceedings and recovery.

Initial advice of a damages claim allows a record to be kept of how settlement is proceeding and when it is likely that the case will be decided.  It is most important to record these details.

In this regard, the 'CCOM.CM' (Create Claim Comments) function on PRACSYS should be used to enter any information for not only initial advice from the dependant (or his or her representative), but also any ongoing issues relating to settlement processes.