If you've been hurt at work, the days after you report it come down to two things: looking after your recovery, and waiting to hear back from the WSIB. For a lot of people, the waiting is the harder part.
Here's the short answer. Most lost-time claims get a first decision within two weeks. In its latest published results, covering October to December 2025, the WSIB made a first decision within 10 business days on 96% of lost-time claims, which met its target.
A lost-time claim is one where you're off work past the day you were hurt, you lose wages, or you're left with a lasting impairment. The WSIB ties that speed to your recovery: the sooner it allows a claim, the sooner it can start helping you get better and back to work.
How long until the first payment?
Usually a little longer than the decision. Between October and December 2025, the WSIB made the first payment within 15 days on 78% of claims, which it reported as below its target.
These are the WSIB's latest published figures, and they come from before the job cuts it announced in August 2026. Our article The WSIB Is Changing How It Works. Here's What to Keep Track Of explains what's changing.
Once payments start, give them a day to show up. Payment details can take up to 24 hours to appear in your WSIB online account, so check again the next day before you call.
What has to happen before the WSIB can decide?
The WSIB decides based on what it has been told, so your claim moves once the right reports reach it.
Your employer's report. Your employer has to report your injury to the WSIB within three business days of learning about it, and give you a copy. Read that copy carefully. A wrong date or a missing detail is far easier to fix now than later.
Your own report. The WSIB can pay up to two weeks of benefits before your own report arrives, but nothing further until it does. Filing online also gives the health professionals treating you permission to share information about your functional abilities with the WSIB and your employer. Our article What Is the WSIB Functional Abilities Form? explains what that form covers.
A health professional's input. If a pharmacist was the only one you saw, you'll need to follow up with a chiropractor, physician, physiotherapist or nurse practitioner before the WSIB can review your claim.
Why do some claims take longer?
Because some need more than the usual reports from you, your employer and your health professional. For an illness caused by your work, the WSIB assigns a decision-maker who specializes in occupational disease. They'll call you for more information, then weigh what you, your employers and your health care providers tell them.
Steps to Justice, an Ontario legal information service, says a WSIB decision can take 12 weeks or more. A missing or late report can slow any claim, so it's worth checking early that every report has been submitted.
How can you check where your claim stands?
The WSIB's online services show your claim status, your latest payments, your approved benefits and, if you appeal, where your appeal stands. Your claim appears under My claims once the WSIB has registered it.
Every decision comes to you in writing, with the reasons behind it, and your employer receives a copy of each decision letter too.
What if you disagree with the decision?
Start with the person who signed your decision letter. Tell them why you disagree and point out anything they may have missed. That review generally takes 14 business days.
A reconsideration doesn't restart your time limit to object. It's 30 days for return-to-work and work transition decisions and six months for most others, counted from the date of the decision.
If it becomes a formal appeal, your online account shows an estimate of how long each step will take. If you're not in a union, the Office of the Worker Adviser can help you appeal, and it's free.
Our article How Do I Appeal a WSIB Decision? walks through each step, and our article My WSIB Claim Was Denied. What Now? covers what to do first after a denial.
What should you keep track of while you wait?
Only the WSIB can decide your claim. While you wait, there's a decision that belongs to you, and it matters every bit as much: start documenting your days.
The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide makes that simple. Each of the five things below has its own place in it, so they're quick to fill in and easy to follow from one week to the next.
- When you reported, and to whom. Your employer, your health professional and the WSIB.
- Your copy of your employer's report. Note when you got it and anything that looks wrong.
- Every call about your claim. The name, the date, and what was asked of you or agreed. A few words now save you from piecing it together months later.
- Each letter you receive. Write down two dates: the one printed on the letter and the day it reached you. Your time limits start from the printed date, so a slow delivery shortens the time you have.
- How you're doing each day. Pain, sleep, the appointments you kept, and anything you couldn't manage, like a full shift, driving or carrying groceries.
Start today, and write each entry the day it happens, while the details are still clear. Pair the National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide with the Ontario Workplace Injury Companion Guide for the dates and rules that shape a WSIB claim, with a WSIB appeal covered in full.
What else should you know about your claim?
If you're wondering what you'll be paid, our article How Much Does WSIB Pay While You Are Off Work? breaks it down. For the full process, start to finish, see our article How Does a WSIB Claim Work in Ontario?
Every figure in this article comes from a named source. How we check
Last verified: September 2026.
