What you can claim through CTP in NSW

The short answer

The NSW CTP scheme pays two kinds of compensation. Statutory benefits are paid as you go: treatment and care, and weekly payments if your injuries affect your work. Common law damages are a lump sum that only some people can claim.

Most injured people can claim statutory benefits regardless of who was at fault. This page covers accidents on or after 1 December 2017, which fall under the Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017 (NSW). Some rules changed for accidents from 1 April 2023, so your accident date matters.

Statutory benefits can include:

• weekly payments if you lose income, including if you're self-employed
• reasonable and necessary medical, dental, pharmaceutical and rehabilitation expenses
• travel to and from treatment
• paid domestic help and personal care (commercial attendant care) if you need it while you recover
• if someone dies, reasonable funeral expenses.

Treatment and care

The CTP insurer pays for treatment and care that is reasonable and necessary for your accident injuries, within the benefit periods that apply to you. It decides what's approved, and its decisions can be reviewed.

Once you've told the insurer about your injury, it can approve some treatment before you lodge a full claim, usually a GP visit and two further treatment sessions such as physiotherapy. This is at the insurer's discretion and only within the first 28 days after the crash. For more treatment you need to lodge a claim.

Ambulance and much of your public hospital treatment (such as accommodation, X-rays, blood tests and nursing) are covered by the Fund levy paid with every CTP Green Slip, whether or not you make a claim or were at fault. Some public hospital doctors' bills aren't covered. If you make a CTP claim, send those bills to the insurer. It pays them if you're eligible and the treatment is reasonable and necessary.

More detail, including approvals and bills: treatment and care.

Weekly payments

If your injuries stop you working, or reduce your earnings, you can claim weekly payments. They're up to 95% of your pre-accident earnings for the first 13 weeks, then up to 80% or 85% from week 14, depending on your earning capacity. There's a legislated maximum weekly amount that's indexed every 1 October, so we don't quote a dollar figure.

You need a current Certificate of Fitness from your doctor to get weekly payments. To have them back-paid to the day after the accident, the insurer generally needs your claim within 28 days of the accident.

How the amount is worked out and what keeps payments going: weekly payments.

Help at home

If you need it while you recover, statutory benefits can cover paid domestic help and personal care (commercial attendant care).

Paid domestic services and home maintenance are available for threshold injuries too, but the hours are limited in the first 52 weeks. The insurer can agree to more hours if the restrictions in your Certificate of Fitness stop you doing your usual household tasks.

How long benefits last

How long statutory benefits last depends on your injury, whether you were at fault and your accident date.

• Threshold injury: for accidents on or after 1 April 2023, weekly payments and treatment and care generally last up to 52 weeks after the accident. For accidents between 1 December 2017 and 31 March 2023, the limit for what were then called minor injuries was generally 26 weeks. Treatment may sometimes be allowed beyond that in limited circumstances. See threshold injury.
• Wholly or mostly at fault: statutory benefits generally stop after 52 weeks (accidents from 1 April 2023). See if you were at fault.
• Children: children who were 16 or under at the time of the accident can receive treatment and care for as long as they need it, regardless of fault.
• Weekly payments for everyone else: they generally stop after 2 years, and can continue for longer in some cases while a damages claim is pending.
• Treatment and care after 5 years: if you still need treatment and care five years after the crash, responsibility for paying for it moves from your CTP insurer to CTP Care, run by the Lifetime Care and Support Authority. Your insurer still handles any damages claim. Weekly payments never continue beyond 5 years after the crash, and for most people they end earlier.
• Catastrophic injuries: people catastrophically injured in a road crash (for example a spinal cord injury or severe brain injury) may be covered by the separate no-fault Lifetime Care and Support Scheme.

A lump sum, for some people

You may be able to claim common law damages if another driver was at fault and your injury is more than a threshold injury. If you were wholly or mostly at fault, your right to damages may be limited or unavailable, and any damages are reduced for your share of the fault. Get legal advice.

Damages can include past and future loss of earnings (economic loss). Damages for pain and suffering (non-economic loss) are only available if your whole person impairment is more than 10%.

The short version, including the dates: lump sum damages.

After a death

If someone dies in a motor crash in NSW, CTP insurance covers reasonable funeral expenses regardless of fault, including transporting the person to near their usual home. The deceased person's legal personal representative (usually a close family member) can apply.

Close relatives who were financially dependent on the person who died may be able to claim compensation, including for the lost financial support and domestic services the person provided. This generally depends on the deceased not being mostly at fault.

Trauma and grief support is available straight away through SIRA's CTP Assist line, 1300 656 919. More in after a death.

What CTP doesn't pay for

• Damage to your car or other property. CTP covers injuries and deaths only. For vehicle damage, check whether your own car insurance covers it, or seek to recover the cost from the at-fault driver or their insurer.
• Care from family or friends. Unpaid care from family or friends (gratuitous care) is generally not paid as a statutory benefit.
• Treatment costs in a lump sum. Damages don't include treatment and care costs. Reasonable and necessary treatment and care continues through statutory benefits instead, and can continue after a damages claim settles.
• Your own injuries in a crash outside NSW. NSW statutory benefits are only for crashes in NSW. See interstate accidents.
• Work injuries. If you were hurt at work (including driving for work), it's usually a workers compensation claim, which is a different scheme. We can point you to the right help.

Medicare, Centrelink and private health

Medicare. If you have a CTP claim, the CTP insurer, not Medicare, should generally pay for your accident-related treatment, so give your providers the insurer's name and your claim number. If Medicare did pay for related treatment and you later receive compensation of more than $5,000, you may have to repay it.

Centrelink. If you get compensation for lost income (weekly payments or a lump sum), it can affect Centrelink payments for you or your partner. You must tell Centrelink. A lump sum can mean a period when you can't get income support, and you may have to repay past payments.

Private health insurance. If you have a CTP claim, send treatment bills to the CTP insurer rather than your health fund. Health funds have their own rules about injuries where compensation may be payable, so check with your fund before claiming from it.

Get advice about your own situation before you settle anything.

Check the current rules

Rules change. This page reflects the rules as we understand them in September 2026. General information, not legal advice.