Complaints to the WorkCover Ombudsman jumped 44 per cent in the last financial year.

Most complaints related to delays in payments – a cause for concern, the Ombudsman, Wayne Lines, said in the latest annual report, tabled yesterday.

The Ombudsman’s documented concerns follow last week’s declaration by Deputy Premier John Rau that WorkCover  is a basket case and beyond redemption.

“It’s buggered,” Rau told InDaily.

The Ombudsman – established in 2008 – investigates complaints relating to the operation of the State Government’s worker’s compensation scheme.

“In the 2012-13 year my Office received 287 complaints on a range of issues; this is a 44 per cent increase on the previous year,” the Ombudsman said.

“As in previous years, around 35 per cent of complaints relate to delays in making approved payments, replying to enquiries or completing certain processes.

‘It is a significant issue with no sign of improvement.”

Lines said self-insured employers performed better than WorkCover.

“Of concern is that there was a 50 per cent increase in complaints about income maintenance not being paid on time and a 100 per cent increase in complaints about delays in processing payments of section 32 expenses.

“Only 20 per cent of complaints were against self-insured employers, which is surprising considering that nearly 40 per cent of the State’s employment is provided by self-insured employers.

“In the 2012-13 year, 274 complaints were finalised with 70 per cent resolved following the first response to the complainant’s allegations.

“In addition, I issued 15 recommendations on 12 separate complaints.”

Rau, meanwhile, has promised to fix the ailing multi-billion dollar corporation.

“We’ll decommission the scheme and start again,” he said last week.

“It’s been amended, patched over and fiddled with for years and in the process has become so disliked, the only thing to do is to rub it out and start again.”

WorkCover administers workers’ compensation for more than 430,000 employees of almost 50,000 businesses.

Last year it managed 16,774 claims, collected $667 million in employer levies and paid out more than $809 million in cliams.

The gap between income and expenditure is mostly covered by a massive $2.25 billion investment fund; its holdings in shares, property and cash delivered investment returns of $253 million.

Even with the investment income, WorkCover’s projected gap between estimated claims and estimated income leaves it with an unfunded liability of $1.366 billion.

Rau, who took over responsibility for WorkCover early this year, has been doing an internal review of the organisation, and doesn’t like what he sees.

He expects to name seven new members of its board by the end of this month, along with a new chairman.