Analysis of Safe Work Australia’s Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Report

Safetysure have analysed the recent data provided by Safework Australia on mental health in the workplace. Workplace mental health has emerged as the most significant growth area in Australian workers compensation, fundamentally reshaping the landscape of occupational injury and disease management. Whilst traditional workplace hazards such as falls, machinery incidents and manual handling injuries continue to affect Australian workers, psychological injuries now represent a distinct and accelerating challenge for employers, insurers and compensation authorities across all jurisdictions

Our analysis found that Australian workplace mental health compensation claims reached 17,600 in 2023-24, representing 12% of all serious workers compensation claims. The data reveals a 161% increase in mental health claims over 10 years, with workers experiencing a median 35.7 weeks off work and median compensation of $67,400. These figures represent the highest growth rate and cost burden of any workplace injury category tracked in Australia’s National Data Set for Compensation-based Statistics.

The three primary causes identified are harassment and workplace bullying accounting for 33.2% of mental health claims, work pressure representing 24.2%, and exposure to violence and harassment comprising 15.7%. Gender disparities are significant, with mental health claims representing 17.2% of female workers’ total claims compared to 8.2% for male workers.

This data is sourced from Safe Work Australia’s Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Australia 2025 report, published October 2025.

Workplace Mental Health Claim Statistics – Volume and Growth Trends

Mental health conditions accounted for 17,600 serious workers’ compensation claims in 2023-24p, constituting 12.0% of all serious workplace injury claims in Australia. This represents an increase of 2,300 claims, or 14.7%, from the previous year. Over the longer term, mental health claims have increased by 10,900 claims, representing growth of 161.1% since 2013-14. This represents the largest percentage increase of any injury or disease category tracked in the National Data Set for Compensation-based Statistics over this period.

The proportion of serious workers compensation claims attributed to mental health conditions has demonstrated sustained growth, rising from 6.2% in 2013-14 to 12.0% in 2023-24p. To provide context for this growth trajectory, mental health claims increased by 161.1% over the 10-year period, whilst all other injury types combined increased by 26.1% over the same period. This means mental health claims are growing at approximately 6.2 times the rate of other injury types, indicating a fundamental shift in the composition of Australia’s workers compensation claim landscape.

The divergent trajectory between mental health claims and other injury categories has accelerated in recent years rather than stabilising. The 14.7% year-on-year growth rate from 2022-23 to 2023-24p demonstrates that this is not a temporary spike but rather an ongoing trend that shows no signs of plateauing. This sustained acceleration suggests that mental health has become a primary driver of workers compensation claim volume growth in Australia, with implications for both injury prevention strategies and compensation scheme financial sustainability.

Mental Health Compensation Costs: Duration and Payment Data

Mental health workplace claims are distinguished as the costliest category of workers compensation in Australia based on two key metrics that measure both the duration of workplace absence and the financial compensation required. The median time lost from work for mental health claims was 35.7 weeks in 2022-23, compared to the overall median of 7.4 weeks across all serious claims. This represents a ratio of 4.8 to 1, meaning mental health claims result in nearly five times longer periods of absence from work than other workplace injuries and diseases.

The financial burden of mental health claims similarly exceeds other injury categories by a substantial margin. The median compensation paid for mental health claims was $67,400 in 2022-23, compared to the overall median of $16,300 across all other claim types. This represents a ratio of 4.1 to 1, indicating that mental health claims cost more than four times the median compensation for other workplace injuries. These extended durations and higher compensation payments mean that mental health claims consume disproportionate shares of workers compensation scheme resources relative to their frequency as a proportion of total claims.

Mental health claims predominantly fall into the high-cost, long-duration category that places the greatest strain on workers compensation systems. According to 2022-23 workers compensation data, claims involving 13 or more weeks of time lost from work represented only 21.9% of total claims across Australia. However, these long-duration claims accounted for 74.8% of total compensation payments, representing $5.4 billion in compensation costs. Mental health claims, with their median duration of 35.7 weeks, contribute disproportionately to this high-cost category. This concentration of costs in long-duration claims, of which mental health conditions are a substantial component, has significant implications for workers compensation scheme sustainability and premium calculations across Australian industries.

What Causes Workplace Mental Health Claims in Australia?

Mental health compensation claims in Australia are classified under the mechanism ‘Mental stress’, which accounted for 16,800 serious claims in 2023-24p, representing 11.5% of all serious claims across Australian jurisdictions. Safe Work Australia’s classification system identifies three primary sub-categories of mental stress claims that together account for nearly three-quarters of all mental health-related workers compensation claims. Understanding these mechanism categories provides insight into the workplace factors and exposures that lead to compensable mental health conditions.

Harassment and workplace bullying constitute the largest single category of mental health claims, accounting for 33.2% of all mental stress claims. This category captures interpersonal workplace conflicts, systematic patterns of hostile behaviour, and situations where workers experience repeated unreasonable actions directed towards them. The prominence of this category indicates that workplace culture and interpersonal factors represent the most significant driver of mental health compensation claims in Australia. Work pressure represents the second most common cause, accounting for 24.2% of mental stress claims. This category encompasses situations involving excessive workload, unrealistic deadlines, inadequate resources to meet job demands, and role ambiguity or conflict.

Exposure to violence and harassment accounts for 15.7% of mental stress claims, capturing situations where workers face physical or verbal aggression from colleagues, clients, customers or members of the public. This category particularly affects workers in public-facing roles, healthcare settings, enforcement positions, and customer service environments. The remaining 26.9% of mental stress claims comprise other or unspecified workplace psychological stressors that do not fall neatly into the three primary categories. These may include organisational change, traumatic incidents, ethical conflicts, or combinations of multiple stressors.

Mental Health Claims by Gender, Age and Occupation

Significant gender disparities exist in the prevalence and pattern of mental health workers compensation claims in Australia. Mental health conditions represented 17.2% of all serious claims among female workers in 2023-24p, compared to 8.2% among male workers. This differential of 2.1 to 1 indicates that mental health conditions comprise a substantially larger proportion of female workers’ compensation claims relative to male workers’ claims. Whilst women account for 42% of all serious workers compensation claims, they represent a disproportionately higher share of mental health-specific claims.

Gender differences extend beyond the prevalence of mental health claims to encompass other compensation characteristics. Across all serious claim types, female workers’ claims had a median time lost of 7.7 weeks compared to 7.2 weeks for male workers, and median compensation of $14,600 compared to $17,600 for male workers. The lower median compensation for female workers despite similar or longer durations may reflect differences in wage rates, occupational distributions, or claim management approaches. However, the Safe Work Australia report does not disaggregate time lost or compensation data specifically for mental health conditions by gender, limiting the ability to determine whether these overall patterns hold true specifically for psychological injury claims.

The report does not provide age-specific data for mental health conditions as a distinct nature of injury category, preventing detailed analysis of how mental health claim patterns vary across worker age groups. However, overall serious workers compensation claims data indicates that frequency rates and median compensation generally increase with worker age. Workers aged 55 to 64 years recorded the highest frequency rate at 9.5 claims per million hours worked, whilst workers aged 65 and over recorded a rate of 10.0 claims per million hours worked. These older age groups also experienced longer recovery periods and higher compensation costs across all claim types, though whether this pattern applies specifically to mental health claims cannot be determined from the available disaggregated data.

Mental stress as a mechanism represented 11.5% of serious claims across all Australian occupations in 2023-24p. The report does not provide occupation-specific prevalence data for mental health conditions as a distinct nature of injury category, limiting the ability to identify which occupations face the highest specific risk of psychological injury. However, overall serious claims data shows that labourers recorded the highest frequency rate at 23.1 claims per million hours worked, followed by community and personal service workers at 15.3 claims per million hours worked, and machinery operators and drivers at 12.1 claims per million hours worked. These high-frequency occupations may face proportionally greater exposure to mental health claims, though the absence of disaggregated data prevents precise quantification of occupation-specific mental health risks.

Industries with Highest Mental Health Claim Rates

Safe Work Australia’s 2025 report does not provide industry-specific breakdowns for mental health claims as a distinct category, limiting the ability to definitively identify which sectors face the highest psychological injury risk. However, the report identifies the industries with the highest overall serious claim volumes and frequency rates, which provides indicative information about potential mental health claim concentrations. Four industries accounted for 51.2% of all serious claims in Australia during 2023-24p, despite representing only 36.3% of filled jobs covered by workers compensation schemes.

Health care and social assistance recorded the highest volume of serious claims, accounting for 29,100 claims or 19.9% of the national total. This sector’s prominence likely reflects both its large workforce and the nature of caring work, which involves high emotional demands, exposure to trauma, interactions with distressed individuals, and physically demanding tasks. Construction recorded 17,600 serious claims representing 12.0% of the total, manufacturing recorded 14,800 claims representing 10.1%, and public administration and safety recorded 13,600 claims representing 9.2%. Together, these four industries account for more than half of all serious workers compensation claims in Australia.

When examined on a frequency rate basis that accounts for the number of hours worked rather than absolute claim volumes, a different pattern emerges. Agriculture, forestry and fishing recorded the highest frequency rate at 10.0 serious claims per million hours worked, representing a rate 46.9% higher than the national average of 6.8 claims per million hours worked. Public administration and safety recorded a frequency rate of 9.6 claims per million hours worked, transport, postal and warehousing recorded 9.4, and manufacturing also recorded 9.4. Health care and social assistance, despite having the highest absolute number of claims, recorded a frequency rate of 9.3 claims per million hours worked. These high-frequency industries likely experience correspondingly elevated mental health claim rates, though the absence of industry-specific mental health data in the report prevents precise quantification of sector-specific psychological injury exposure.

Comparative Analysis – Mental Health vs Other Workplace Injuries

Mental health conditions represent one component of the broader “diseases and conditions” category in Australian workers compensation statistics, which is distinguished from the “injuries” category that encompasses traumatic physical injuries. In 2023-24p, diseases and conditions accounted for 49,100 claims representing 33.5% of all serious claims, whilst physical injuries accounted for 97,600 claims representing 66.5% of all serious claims. Within the diseases and conditions category, mental health conditions accounted for 17,600 claims representing 12.0% of all serious claims, whilst musculoskeletal and connective tissue diseases accounted for 22,500 claims representing 15.3% of all serious claims.

The diseases and conditions category has demonstrated substantial growth over the past decade, rising from 26.1% of claims in 2013-14 to 33.5% in 2023-24p. This represents a 7.4 percentage point increase in the share of claims accounted for by diseases rather than traumatic injuries. Mental health conditions have driven a substantial proportion of this growth in the diseases category. The shift from physical injuries toward diseases as a proportion of the compensation landscape reflects both genuine changes in the nature of work-related harm and potentially improved recognition and acceptance of disease-based claims, particularly psychological injuries.

Index analysis using 2013-14 as a baseline with an index value of 100 demonstrates the divergent growth trajectories between mental health conditions and other injury types over the subsequent decade. Mental health conditions reached an index value of approximately 261 in 2023-24p, indicating that claim volumes increased to 2.61 times their 2013-14 level. By contrast, all other injury types combined reached an index value of approximately 126 in 2023-24p, indicating that claim volumes increased to 1.26 times their 2013-14 level. This means mental health claims have grown at more than double the rate of other serious claim categories over the decade. The divergence between these trend lines has widened progressively rather than converging, indicating an ongoing structural shift in the composition of Australia’s workers compensation claims rather than a temporary anomaly.

Broader trends in workers compensation claims severity provide additional context for understanding mental health claim patterns. Over the 10 years to 2022-23, the median time lost from work across all claim types increased by 35.1%, indicating that claims are becoming more severe or requiring longer recovery periods. The proportion of claims involving no time lost from work decreased from 36.6% in 2012-13 to 28.2% in 2022-23, whilst the proportion of claims involving long durations of 13 or more weeks of time lost increased from 13.3% in 2012-13 to 21.9% in 2022-23. Mental health claims, with their median duration of 35.7 weeks, significantly contribute to this trend toward longer-duration claims and may be partially responsible for the overall increase in claim severity observed across Australia’s workers compensation landscape.

Data Sources and Methodology – Workers Compensation Statistics

The statistics presented in this analysis by Safetysure are drawn from Safe Work Australia’s Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Australia 2025 report, which compiles national workers compensation data from all Australian state and territory workers compensation authorities, as well as Commonwealth government workers compensation schemes. These data are collated into the National Data Set for Compensation-based Statistics, which serves as Safe Work Australia’s primary source of information on work-related injuries and diseases accepted under workers compensation schemes across Australian jurisdictions.

Workers compensation statistics capture only injuries and illnesses that result in accepted claims under the relevant jurisdiction’s compensation scheme. Australian Bureau of Statistics Work-related Injuries Survey data from 2021-22 provides important context about the limitations of compensation-based statistics. The survey indicates that only 30.5% of workers who experienced work-related injuries or illnesses in the previous 12 months received workers compensation. The most common reason for not claiming was that the injury was minor or a claim was not considered necessary, cited by 39.6% of respondents who did not receive compensation. Other reasons included believing they were not eligible for compensation, being unaware of workers compensation arrangements, concerns about negative impacts on employment, and the inconvenience or paperwork requirements involved in making a claim.

The extent to which this under-claiming pattern applies specifically to mental health conditions is not quantified in either the Safe Work Australia compensation data or the Australian Bureau of Statistics survey data. It is possible that mental health conditions may have different claiming patterns than physical injuries, potentially involving higher rates of non-claiming due to stigma, uncertainty about eligibility, concerns about employment consequences, or difficulty establishing the work-relatedness of psychological conditions. Alternatively, mental health claims may be more likely to be lodged when they occur given their typically extended durations and higher costs. The absence of condition-specific claiming propensity data means that the 17,600 serious mental health claims captured in the workers compensation statistics may represent an uncertain fraction of the total burden of work-related mental health conditions experienced by Australian workers.

Mental health conditions are classified using the Type of Occurrence Classifications System, which provides standardised coding for workers compensation claims across Australian jurisdictions. The nature of injury classification categorises the most serious injury or disease sustained by the worker, with mental health conditions forming one major group within the broader diseases and conditions category. The mechanism of incident classification uses a separate coding structure that captures the overall action, exposure or event that resulted in the claim, with mental stress representing the relevant mechanism for psychological injuries. These different classification approaches mean that mental health statistics may vary slightly depending on whether they are based on nature of injury coding or mechanism of incident coding.

The 2023-24p data presented in the report are preliminary, as indicated by the ‘p’ notation, and are subject to revision as additional claims are finalised. Workers compensation claims may be lodged months or even years after an injury occurs, and claim acceptance decisions may take time to be finalised. Historical data on work-related claims are regularly updated as additional information from finalised coroners’ reports, workplace health and safety investigations, and claims assessment processes becomes available. Final claim numbers for any given year typically increase modestly as late-reported claims are accepted, though the preliminary figures provide a reasonable indication of the overall trends and patterns evident in the data.

What Mental Health Claim Statistics Mean for Australian Employers?

The statistical profile of mental health workers compensation claims presents distinct resource allocation considerations for Australian industry. The ratio of 4.8 to 1 in median time lost and 4.1 to 1 in median compensation paid relative to other serious claims indicates that mental health conditions consume disproportionate shares of workers compensation scheme resources and workplace absence management capacity. Organisations must allocate substantially greater resources to case management, rehabilitation coordination, and temporary replacement staff for mental health claims compared to the typical physical injury. The concentration of mental health claims in the long-duration, high-cost category that accounts for nearly three-quarters of total compensation payments despite representing less than one-quarter of claim volumes has particular significance for self-insurers and organisations with experience-rated premium arrangements.

The sustained growth trajectory of 161.1% over 10 years, combined with 14.7% year-on-year growth in the most recent period, suggests that historical claim volume forecasting models may require recalibration to account for this accelerating trend. Insurers and compensation scheme administrators who base premium calculations and reserve requirements on historical claim patterns may be systematically underestimating future mental health claim volumes. Similarly, organisations that allocate rehabilitation budgets, return-to-work resources, and occupational health services based on historical utilisation patterns may find these resources increasingly insufficient as mental health claims comprise an ever-larger proportion of their compensation experience. The absence of any indication that the growth trajectory is plateauing suggests that mental health claims will continue to increase their share of the compensation landscape for the foreseeable future.

The identification of three primary mechanism sub-categories provides quantifiable targets for intervention design and effectiveness measurement. Harassment and workplace bullying, accounting for 33.2% of mental health claims, points to workplace culture, interpersonal conduct policies, investigation procedures, and reporting mechanisms as critical intervention domains. Work pressure, accounting for 24.2% of claims, indicates that workload management, resource allocation, realistic performance expectations, and job design represent key leverage points for prevention. Exposure to violence and harassment, representing 15.7% of claims, suggests that security measures, de-escalation training, client interaction protocols, and post-incident support systems warrant particular attention in affected industries and occupations. These categories offer concrete, measurable targets against which organisations can assess the effectiveness of psychosocial risk management initiatives.

The gender differential of 2.1 to 1 in the proportion of claims represented by mental health conditions indicates that workforce demographic composition may influence aggregate organisational mental health claim profiles at the organisational level. Industries and organisations with higher proportions of female workers may face different mental health risk profiles than those with predominantly male workforces, though this observation must be interpreted cautiously given that the gender differential may reflect occupational distributions, different exposures to psychosocial hazards, different help-seeking behaviours, or combinations of these and other factors. Industries and occupations with high overall serious claim rates may face proportionally greater exposure to mental health claims, though the absence of disaggregated industry and occupation-specific mental health data in the Safe Work Australia report limits precision in sector-specific risk quantification. Organisations are advised to analyse their own workers compensation claims data to identify specific patterns, trends, and risk concentrations relevant to their particular workforce, industry, and operational context.

Frequently Asked Questions: Mental Health Workers Compensation Australia

How many mental health workers compensation claims are there in Australia?

There were 17,600 serious mental health workers compensation claims in Australia in 2023-24, representing 12.0% of all serious workplace injury and disease claims nationally. These are claims that involved at least one week of time lost from work.

Are mental health workers compensation claims increasing?

Yes, mental health claims have increased by 161.1% over the 10-year period from 2013-14 to 2023-24p, and by 14.7% year-on-year from 2022-23 to 2023-24p. This represents the fastest growth rate of any workplace injury or disease category tracked in Australia’s national workers compensation statistics.

How long are workers off work for mental health claims?

The median time lost for mental health workers compensation claims is 35.7 weeks, compared to 7.4 weeks for all other claim types. This means mental health claims result in nearly five times longer periods of absence from work than other workplace injuries and diseases.

What is the average payout for mental health workers compensation in Australia?

The median compensation paid for mental health claims is $67,400, compared to $16,300 for all other claim types. This represents more than four times higher compensation, reflecting the extended duration and significant impact of work-related mental health conditions.

What are the main causes of mental health workers compensation claims?

The three primary causes are harassment and workplace bullying accounting for 33.2% of mental health claims, work pressure representing 24.2%, and exposure to violence and harassment comprising 15.7%. The remaining 26.9% involves other or unspecified workplace psychological stressors.

Which workers have the highest rate of mental health compensation claims?

Female workers have mental health conditions representing 17.2% of their total serious claims compared to 8.2% for male workers, a ratio of 2.1 to 1. By occupation, labourers, community and personal service workers, and machinery operators and drivers have the highest overall serious claim frequency rates, though occupation-specific mental health data is not disaggregated in the report.

Which Australian industries have the most mental health claims?

Whilst industry-specific mental health claim data is not disaggregated in the Safe Work Australia report, the sectors with the highest overall serious claim volumes are health care and social assistance with 19.9% of all claims, construction with 12.0%, manufacturing with 10.1%, and public administration and safety with 9.2%. Industries with the highest frequency rates per million hours worked are agriculture, forestry and fishing, public administration and safety, transport, postal and warehousing, and manufacturing.

About This Analysis

This analysis by Safetysure Health & Safety Consultants is based on Safe Work Australia’s Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Australia 2025 report, published in October 2025. The report compiles national workers compensation data from all Australian state, territory and Commonwealth government compensation authorities through the National Data Set for Compensation-based Statistics. Statistics marked with ‘p’ notation are preliminary and subject to revision as additional claims are finalised and late-reported claims are accepted. The data covers the 2023-24 period on a preliminary basis and 2022-23 on a final basis, with historical trend data extending back to 2013-14 for long-term comparative analysis.

Safe Work Australia is the Australian Government statutory agency responsible for developing national policy relating to work health and safety and workers compensation. The agency works with Commonwealth, state and territory governments and representatives of employer and employee organisations to improve work health and safety and workers compensation arrangements across Australia. The National Data Set for Compensation-based Statistics represents the most comprehensive source of information on work-related injuries and diseases in Australia, though it captures only injuries and illnesses that result in accepted workers compensation claims rather than the full universe of workplace harm.

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Mental Health Workplace Claims Australia: 2025 Statistics and Analysis