Taxpayers are to be hit with a bill of more than $74 million for just one year of mental health claims from federal public servants and other Commonwealth workers, according to the latest official figures.
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The average cost of public sector workers' compensation claims for "mental stress" conditions has hit $345,000, the federal government's workplace insurer Comcare has reported, with about 215 such claims accepted in the 2015-2016 financial year.
The latest statistical bulletin from Comcare reveals a mixed picture; public sector workers' compensation claims are reducing significantly year-on-year, the figures show, leading to a hugely improved financial performance.
But psychological claims continue to be problematic, accounting for only 12 per cent of cases, but 36 per per cent of payouts.
While the number of mental health claims, and their overall associated costs, have reduced in recent years, the price of each individual case increased in 2015-2016, the latest reporting period, indicating that the public service has much to do in getting to grips with its mental health issues.
Successful Comcare claimants are paid their full salaries for their first 45 weeks off-work and then 75 per cent of their salary, plus medical and pharmacological expenses, until they either return to their jobs or reach retirement age.
The high cost of psychological cases reflect the tendency of those claimants to spend more time away from their jobs, not always through their own choice, than other workers.
In the past five reporting years, there have been 447 public sector mental stress claims, or nearly a quarter of the total, that have each cost taxpayers half-a-million dollars or more and workplace bullying and harassment is still the number one cause.
Thirty-eight per cent of public servants making claims for mental stress in 2015-2016 said bullying and harassment left them unable to work while 31-per-cent cited "work pressure" as the cause of their issues.
In its notes to the statistical update, Comcare noted that mental stress cases were on average costing three times the amount of other workers' compensation claims.
"The average incurred cost per mental stress claim in this period is approximately $345 000, whilst the average incurred cost of all claims in the same period was $111 000," the notes state.
Overall though, the Comcare scheme has continued its steady improvement since its horror year of 2012 when it recorded a deficit of more than half-a-billion dollars, later revised upward to a book loss of $670 million.
The compensation scheme finished 2015-16 more than $250 million in the black.
While the insurer is facing $2.8 billion in future public sector workers' compensation payout, it is well on its way to having these liabilities fully-funded from existing assets, with a current funding ratio of 84 per cent.
Comcare has improved its financial position over the years through a get-tough policy on claims and a move to make public service departmental bosses financially liable, through the premium hits to their agency budgets, for workplace safety.
The resulting premium increases caused bitter resentment at the top of the cash-strapped Australian Public Service but have proven effective.
There have also been crackdowns on dubious claims for pharmaceuticals and treatments that have no proven therapeutic benefits.
