New ACC Amendment Act passed by Parliament

Change to the name to the principal Act

• The name will change from the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Act 2001 to:

Accident Compensation Act 2001.

• Comes into effect immediately.

Extending the final date for full-funding and merging the Residual and main Accounts

• Sets the fully-funded date when the estimated residual liabilities must be paid off at 31March2019.
• Folds the Residual Claims Account into the Work Account, and the residual liabilities into the Motor Vehicle Account and Earners’ Accounts.

• Comes into effect immediately.

Allowing collection of the Motor Vehicle Residual Levy from the Petrol Levy

• Will allow both the licensing fee and the motor spirit levy to be used as sources of funding for the Motor Vehicle Account Residual Levy.

• Comes into effect immediately.

Authorises a separate levy for the purpose of funding programmes to improve the safety of moped and motor cycle riders

• Separate levy to be called ‘the Motorcycle Safety levy’ to be imposed on moped and motor cycle riders.

• Comes into effect immediately.

Enabling incentives to reduce injuries for the Work and Motor Vehicle Accounts

• Enables the establishment, by regulations, of experience rating and risk sharing in the Work Account (eg no-claim bonuses, higher or lower levies, and claim thresholds).
• Enables the establishment by regulations of risk rating for both motor vehicles and vehicle owners (eg no-claims bonuses for vehicle owners, or allowing discounts for vehicles with high safety ratings).

• Enabling legislation comes into effect immediately.
• Regulations will be developed at a later date.

Removing amendments made previously relating to cover for work-related gradual process, disease, and infection (WRGPDI)

• Reinstates the three-part test for WRGPDI that applied before the 2008 amendment.

• Comes into effect from 1July2010.
• Will not affect claims for WRGPDI lodged prior to 1July2010, where ACC has not made a decision on the claim.

Removing amendments made previously relating to weekly compensation

• Reinstates the former long-term weekly compensation calculation for non-permanent workers that was in force before the 2008 amendment.
• Increases weekly compensation to the minimum weekly earnings rate after the fifth week of incapacity as occurred before 2008, rather than after the first week of incapacity.
• Reinstates the provision that requires ACC to abate weekly compensation, if a client receives holiday pay on the termination of employment while receiving weekly compensation, for a period equivalent to the amount of leave paid.

• Comes into effect from 1July2010.
• Will only apply to periods of incapacity after 1July2010.

Removing amendments made previously relating to Loss of Potential Earnings (LoPE)

• Reduces the LoPE compensation rate from 100% of the adult minimum weekly earnings to 80%, as occurred before 2008.

• Comes into effect from 1July2010.
• Will only apply to:

• clients incapacitated before 1July2010, but not entitled to LoPE compensation immediately before that date; and
• clients incapacitated on or after 1July2010.

• Existing LoPE clients will be held on the current rate until the new rate (as proposed by the Bill) reaches the old rate through changes to the minimum weekly wage.

Removing amendments made previously relating to vocational independence

• Replaces the vocational independence threshold from capacity to work for 35 hours per week to capacity to work for 30 hours per week.
• Makes it optional for the occupational assessor, during an initial or vocational occupational assessment, to consider the client’s earnings before their incapacity.

• Comes into effect from 1July2010.
• Will not apply to an assessment of a client’s vocational independence that has been commenced, but not determined, before 1July2010.

Reintroducing disentitlement for clients who self-injure or commit suicide

• Reinstates the pre-2001 provision that disentitled clients with cover for injury that was self-inflicted.
• This provision will:

• disentitle, except for treatment, clients with wilfully self-inflicted injuries or suicides
• exclude from disentitlement those clients with a mental injury covered by ACC (ie a mental injury suffered as a result of a physical injury, a mental injury as a result of certain criminal acts (sensitive claims), or a work-related mental injury).

• Comes into effect from 1July2010 for all wilfully self-inflicted injuries and suicides which occur after that date (ie existing entitlements will not be affected).

Strengthening disentitlement for criminals injured while committing a crime for which they are imprisoned

• Provides for automatic disentitlement if a claim meets specific criteria (eg the person was injured while committing the crime for which s/he was imprisoned, and the crime committed carries a maximum sentence of imprisonment for two years or more, the claim has ACC cover).
• Clients who meet criteria will be entitled only to treatment, and their entitlement to surgery will be limited to that which is necessary to restore function to allow them to return to work.
• Provides that the Minister for ACC may exercise his/her discretion in exceptional circumstances.

• Comes into effect from 1July2010 for all personal injuries which occur after that date (ie existing entitlements will not be affected).

Setting a threshold for cover for hearing loss

• Requires that a person’s injury-related hearing loss must reach a 6% threshold before they can be considered for ACC cover.

• Comes into effect from 1July2010.
• Will not affect claims for hearing loss (that do not meet the threshold), lodged prior to 1July2010, where ACC has not yet made a decision on the claim.

Amendments in relation to minor issues together with some technical changes

• Improves access to CoverPlus Extra for shareholder employees who are not able to demonstrate taxable earnings as a shareholder employee.
• Enables ongoing information sharing between IRD and ACC to ensure good customer service.
• Enables ACC to provide non-ACC related government services or entitlements to ACC clients, without having to do so via one of its subsidiaries and on a commercial basis (eg paying a top-up on the funeral grant on behalf of the Ministry of Justice for homicide victims).
• Requires the preparation of a financial condition report by ACC, which must be tabled in the House.

• The provision enabling ACC to provide non-ACC related government services, the provision relating to information sharing with IRD and the requirement to prepare a financial condition report come into effect immediately.
• The provision relating to CoverPlus Extra comes into effect from 1July2010.