Where determinations are discovered which have been determined against the wrong employer, the implications of voiding and reissuing determinations to new employers may have a marked effect on the previous employer, particularly where the incapacity dates back to before the current financial year.
While in essence, employee's claims should be adjusted to reflect the correct employer, consider this true case:
|
Australian Archives (quite a small employer) discovered there were three claims incorrectly held against their records. This was found after AA had perused a report issued from PRACSYS. |
|
Some incapacities for these claims dated back many years. |
|
For each claim, employer records were changed. This then resulted in a $140,000.00 overpayment against AA, which they could neither afford, nor had budgeted for. |
|
The overpayment was raised without consultation with the employer, and the first they knew of it was when a negative $140,000 figure appeared against a cheque remittance. |
In such a situation, either:
-
advise the employer about the overpayment and make arrangements with them regarding a reasonable rate of recovery, using the procedure outlined above for small employers (this is Comcare's preference); or
-
discuss the situation with the employer, and agree to only adjust the incapacity back to the beginning of the current financial year.
In both instances, the applicable national business manager must be involved with any consultation with the employer, and must be fully informed of the circumstances of the situation.
In all cases, users should be aware that the voiding of incapacity and reissue (if at all) of determinations for lesser amounts will result in overpayments to the employer. Care must be taken when performing this process. The implications of such a process may be more important than is immediately obvious.