170 ACC clients to lose weekly compensation

Some ACC clients will no longer be eligible for weekly compensation as a result of a 2006 court case that is only now being acted upon.

An inquiry from a select committee member in March this year prompted ACC to review whether it was correctly paying weekly compensation to certain groups.

ACC Chief Executive Dr Jan White said today, “This issue is about people who have stopped work because of the effects of an injury they received earlier, at a time when they were not employed.

“What happened is that we incorrectly paid weekly compensation to people in this position when the law did not allow us to. What the Court clarified is that ACC can only pay weekly compensation if people have a job at the time that they are injured.

Dr White said, “We should have acted immediately, after the court had issued its decision, but due to an internal oversight, we didn’t. We’re very sorry for this error.”

As a result of the latest investigation, ACC has determined that 170 of its clients are incorrectly receiving weekly compensation.

The Corporation is now in the process of contacting each of them to explain the situation, and since March had stopped any further people in this position being given weekly assistance.

“However we recognise that for the 170 people affected, the loss of the weekly compensation will have a significant impact on their lives.”

“Because of this we will ensure affected clients have time to adjust. We will continue to pay them weekly compensation until the end of October, and none of the people affected will have to repay any of the weekly compensation that they have received.

“I also want to stress that all other ACC entitlements they are eligible for, such as medical help, will continue. It is the weekly payments and vocational rehabilitation which is only provided to people getting weekly compensation that are affected.”

“Our priority now is to ensure that our clients get all the help they need to make the necessary adjustments. ACC will also be working closely with the Ministry of Social Development to help clients find out what other financial assistance might be available, and to minimise the disruption for each person in applying for new forms of assistance.

“I would also stress that if anyone thinks they might be affected by this change, and ACC has not yet managed to contact them, they should call their ACC Case Manager or use our freephone number – 0800 101 996. We would have liked to have seen all affected clients personally before making this public, particularly as many of them have suffered significant emotional trauma. Unfortunately media knowledge of this situation has led us to issue today’s statement. Despite starting the process of contacting the affected clients last Tuesday, we have not been able to contact all of them.

“Lessons have been learnt from this. We have reviewed internal procedures and processes to minimise the chances of this happening again,” said Dr White.