It can also be revealed the federal government will crack down from next month on the kind of generous compensation payouts that led the ACT to cut Comcare loose.

ACT Employment Minister Mick Gentleman said of the 531 territory claims to Comcare currently attracting payments for loss of earnings, only 45 were less than one year old.

More than 150 workers had been paid while their claims went unresolved for between one and five years, while 124 claims were between five and 10 years old. A total of 207 claims from the ACT date back more than 10 years.

Meanwhile, Mr Gentleman's federal counterpart, Senator Eric Abetz, told a Senate Estimates committee hearing on Thursday that changes to the legislative framework of the Australian Public Service workers' compensation scheme would target some of the "add-ons" that had been bringing public service compo into "disrepute". The new reforms to the Comcare would address many of the issues cited by the ACT in its decision to walk away from Comcare.

While limited reform legislation was introduced into Parliament last year, the minister pledged a fairer system that would actually add to the circumstances where workers could make claims. "What we want is a sustainable and fair compensation system where those that are genuinely hurt at work should be looked after," Senator Abetz said. "But the whole system is compromised when you have add-ons that are completely unsustainable, brings the whole scheme into disrepute and as a result brings into disrepute a lot of people who are genuine workers' compensation claimants. Some of our other changes would actually see an enhancement of injured workers' capacity to claim."

The Canberra Times revealed on Thursday that the ACT government was taking its 20,000 public servants out of the scheme after losing patience with rising premiums and public servants spending years, or even decades, away from their jobs and claiming compensation.

The territory walked away from Comcare after being presented with a premium bill of $97million in 2014-2015, a 180 per cent increase in nine years.

On Thursday Mr Gentleman said the new scheme would better suit the ACT public service, which includes a greater number of front-line service delivery workers including paramedics, bus drivers, teachers and office workers.

"We are looking at results for Comcare and for other schemes on return to work," Mr Gentleman said. "We want to see a better opportunity for employees to return to work and to have better health outcomes, and therefore better whole of life outcomes."

Mr Gentleman said better value for money was key to the decision and the new scheme would be underwritten by the private sector.

ACT Opposition industrial relations spokesman Brendan Smyth accused Mr Gentleman of not having done enough planning before deciding to move to a new stand-alone scheme.

"What the minister needs to be able to tell the ACT and particularly the public servants he is responsible for is how will they be better off in terms of treatment and whether or not it will actually make a saving from having our own scheme," he said.

Australian Lawyers Alliance ACT president Phil Schubert welcomed the ACT's withdrawal from the federal scheme.

"Comcare is a fundamentally flawed scheme that provides no access to meaningful common-law damages, even when an employer negligently causes an injury."