What To Do If You’re Getting Harassed While Making a Claim.

Before we get into it, full disclosure. I’ve never made a claim for a workplace injury. But I have worked closely with the members of the IWSN for the past year, and one subject that keeps coming up time and time again is the harassment they endure from insurance agencies, bent on finding evidence that you’re fit and healthy enough to be back in the workforce.

These insurance agencies are tasked with finding evidence to prove you’re fit and healthy enough to go back to work. What they don’t take into account is what type of work you’re skilled for, that you have a family to support and need enough income to do so and that you can’t necessarily fit into any old occupation and be grateful for it.

This means that, as an example, if they caught you doing volunteer work they might have a claim that if you’re healthy enough to do volunteer work, you’re healthy enough to do “real” work. It can make life hard to get on with, especially if you find yourself looking for new motivations through volunteering work, being told that you can’t volunteer sounds almost like they want you to stay at home all day, not involving yourself in society and being miserable.

The first step to getting on with life while an insurance company is on your heels is understanding why they’re doing what they’re doing. Insurance companies don’t want to pay out on your claim, and if they can prove you’re fit and healthy enough to head back to work, they don’t have to. The lengths they’ll go to are pretty unbelievable, it’s all incredibly dodgy and, in my experience, can push injured workers to the edge.

That said, here are three tips to help you navigate if you find you’re getting harassed while making a claim:

1: Be careful of what you post online

When dealing with insurance companies trying to track your every move, it’s important that you remember this extends to the online space. An insurance agent also has the potential to stalk you online. If they can see you’re volunteering weekly, going for door knocks or working at a soup kitchen to get you out of the house, they may try to twist this narrative in a court to argue that “if you’re capable of volunteering, you’re capable of working.”

I’m not saying not to volunteer, in fact I believe it to be really beneficial for injured workers finding new and exciting outlets for their time and energy. But it is best to be careful about what you post online, and knowing who can see it. Setting your privacy settings to the highest possible settings and blocking yourself from being tagged in photos of friends might be a safe bet to avoid things turning up at a later date.

When it comes down to it - it’s safest to just not discuss your claim online.

2: Be wary of private investigators

This might seem intense, but insurance companies can hire WorkSafe approved private investigators to take on your case in an attempt to prove you’re fit and healthy enough to go back to work.

WorkSafe have a code of practice for private investigators. In fact they have a whole 13 page booklet on the matter. The code of conduct covers things like how to handle investigations ethically, how to handle mental health claims and rules for surveillance.

While the fact that WorkSafe even needed to create a code of practice for private investigators tells you they had private investigators breaking the rules, the good news is this means that if you believe a private investigator has been assigned to your case, you can read up on the rules that direct their work, and get in contact with WorkSafe if you believe your private investigator has stepped outside of these boundaries.

3: Reach out to the IWSN

None of this is reason to panic. It’s just a few reasons to be cautious. Of course if you’re unsure about if an insurance agency is trying to keep an eye on you, the Injured Workers Support Network is here to hear you out and give some advice. The good news is you’ve already found our website!

You can also join the IWSN Facebook group. But a word of caution, the group is public so any questions you post will be visible by the general public. If you want things to remain a bit more private, you can find an injured worker in the group to have a private conversation with.

The IWSN is here to help you through this difficult process. Please reach out to us or come to one of our upcoming meetings.