Providing an employee statement
Understand when and how to make an employee statement with extra information that supports your Comcare claim.
When to provide an employee statement
An employee statement lets you provide more detail than Comcare’s claim form allows.
An employee statement is helpful if:
- it’s hard to explain when your injury or illness started, or when you noticed it
- complex factors and events caused or contributed to your illness or injury.
If you are claiming for a psychological injury, it’s a good idea to attach an employee statement. However, for first responders with post-traumatic stress disorder, the information on your claim form should be enough.
If you’re not sure whether to provide an employee statement, you can contact Comcare for advice.
If you don’t provide an employee statement with your claim form, your claims manager may ask you to provide one later if they need more information to assess your claim.
What to include
You can use our employee statement template or write your own document.
Include
- When your injury or illness happened, or when you first noticed it
- Specific activities or events (whether work-related or not) that may have contributed to your injury or illness – it can be helpful to date these and list them chronologically.
Don’t include
- Excessive medical detail – what’s in your medical certificate should be enough
- Graphic or distressing information or images
- Guesses or assumptions about other people’s thoughts, intentions or actions
- Unverified information you heard from someone else.
If you’re not sure whether to share sensitive material, contact Comcare for advice.
Evidence to attach
Attach and clearly label any documents that support your employee statement, such as:
- incident reports
- meeting notes
- emails
- witness statements (make sure that anyone providing a statement knows that it will be shared with the employer).
If you think your employer has specific documents that could support your claim, but you can’t access them, we may be able to ask your employer to provide them. In your employee statement, list the specific documents you believe your employer has.
Submitting your employee statement
When making a claim, submit your employee statement and any supporting documents by either:
- uploading them to the online claim form
- attaching them with your paper claim form.
If you have already submitted your claim and your claims manager has asked you for an employee statement, email it to general.enquiries@comcare.gov.au.
Employee statements are shared with employers
When assessing your claim, we will share your employee statement with your employer so that they can respond. We also share with you any information that your employer gives to us.
We share claim information with both parties so that the claim process is fair and transparent.
If you’re concerned about your information being shared, contact Comcare on 1300 366 979.