476 injured workers from the Hunter region will be cut off from the State's workers compensation scheme by the end of the year.
iCare is responsible for providing insurance compensation to more than 326 thousand public and private sector employers in NSW and their 3.6 million employees.
The agency, however, is currently involved in an $80-million-dollar underpayment scandal and is being accused of serious mismanagement and unethical practices.
"The great disappointment of this government's mismanagement of iCare and the workers compensation fund is that actual injured workers who are meant to be looked after by this scheme are instead either getting kicked-off the scheme or being underpaid while they're on the scheme," said Cessnock MP Clayton Barr.
Removing income support from hundreds of sick and injured workers is set to hit the region hard.
"On a regional basis... kicking injured workers off the scheme means they suddenly don't have enough money to keep a roof over their head, put food on the table and what little money they might have had to put back into the community to small businesses is taken away," said Clayton Barr.
"I have personally dealt with injured workers in the Hunter who have tried to commit suicide, tried to self-harm, essentially become homeless, become disconnected from their families through the poverty that has been imposed on them," said Clayton Barr.
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| Image source: ABC News |
