News today confirms that ACC sees one of its roles as getting rid of long term claimants. It was given a quota by the government, and exceeded it.

At a recent conference a senior ACC manager referred to those targeted so far as “low hanging fruit”.  There is no word about what ACC’s role is supposed to be – the rehabilitation of the injured – just confirmation of a declaration of war by ACC towards some of the most vulnerable.

ACC has every incentive to handle claimants ruthlessly because there are no real consequences: the more roughly claimants are handled, the fewer the number of active claims, and therefore the better the bonuses for the ACC staff members involved. And what if the claimants try to fight back by seeking a formal review? Many of them are beaten down by the process to the point where they just give up. If the claimants manage to stay strong and win their review case, the most that ACC has to pay as costs is a paltry few hundred dollars – nothing really when you see what they save by throwing the injured in the scrap heap.

Let’s hope that the resignations of top ACC officials isn’t just an easy out. With the resignations in place, the government can claim that it has dealt with the issues raised by the Bronwyn Pullar affair, and move on with business as usual.

The real issue is that many thousands of claimants are treated like Bronwyn Pullar, or worse. Most of them don’t have friends in high places to help them get justice. As ACC specialists we often hear about people who have been worn down by the ACC machine to the point where they just give up. When broken people languish on sickness benefits for years and years because they can’t get the help they need, we all lose, both economically and from a humanitarian point of view.

When ACC has plenty of money to splash around on public relations consultants to get them out of their own mess, and its political rulers remain focused on a cost saving/surplus producing mentality, there can be little hope of a real change for the better.

In 2010/11 ACC  recorded a surplus of $3.5 billion. We say that this surplus is a disgrace and it shows that the Corporation has forgotten the reason for its existence. 

The money ACC receives is for the purpose of paying and rehabilitating people who have been injured. There are many people who have not been fully paid for their necessary treatment, or who have been worn down by harsh ACC practices and who just give up on pursuing their entitlements. How many of these people are unable to get back to where they should be in life because ACC won’t pay?

ACC needs to be paying more to get their clients back on track. If after making those payments, ACC still has a  surplus then this means they have sucked far too much, in ACC premiums, from hard working individual New Zealanders and businesses. A surplus of this size is tangible proof that ACC is letting down its injured clients, or the people and business who pay its levies – or both. Either way: it’s obscene.