What your levies pay for

All New Zealanders pay levies in different ways. This may be through your income, businesses, petrol, your vehicle registration (rego) or through government funding.

If someone in New Zealand has an accident and we cover their injury, we use this money to help pay for and support their recovery. This includes treatment, health, rehabilitation and support services, loss of income or financial help and injury prevention in the community.

What your levies pay for

Levies pay for the services that provide cover along the complete timeline of an injury.

  • Prevention: We work with partners to reduce the incidence of injuries, and promote healthier, safer work environments through education and awareness.
  • Care: You, or your workers, have immediate access to the necessary care in the event of an injury, as well as temporary cover for loss of income.
  • Recovery: The injured person is covered during the recovery process and rehabilitated to enable them to return to work.

We use each of our five levy accounts to pay for services and support to help you recover if you're injured in an accident. These services and support include:

Loss of income

We use levies to pay for up to 80% of your income if you can't work because of an injury we cover.

Treatment and rehabilitation

Your levies pay for treatments, visits to health providers, rehabilitation programmes and equipment that may help in your recovery.

Help with everyday activities

We use levies to help you in your day to day life. This may be help with childcare, at home or transport to school and work. 

Preventing injury

We invest levies in injury prevention programmes to help stop injuries before they happen.

Preventing injuries helps lower the personal impact that injuries have on you. This means that by reducing them you'll save more, because we don’t need as much money to cover injuries.

What we pay for from our different accounts

The money we collect goes into one of our five accounts. We use each account to cover specific types of injuries.

  1. Work Account

    The Work levy is paid into the Work Account to fund cover for injuries that happen at work. It insures and protects businesses’ most important asset – their people.

    Paying levies if you work or own a business
  2. Earners' Account

    The Earners' levy is paid into the Earners’ Account to fund cover for injuries that happen during everyday activities, eg on the sports field or at home doing DIY.
  3. Motor Vehicle Account

    The Motor Vehicle levy is paid into the Motor Vehicle Account to fund cover for people injured on public roads involving a moving vehicle.

    Paying levies if you own or drive a vehicle
  4. Non-Earners' Account

    There are people in New Zealand who don’t pay levies but still need our support if they’re injured, eg children, beneficiaries, students or visitors to New Zealand. Funding to help them comes from the government through general tax.
  5. Treatment Injury Account

    We use the Treatment Injury Account to fund cover for injuries that are caused by, or happen during, medical treatment. It’s funded by both the Earners’ and Non-Earners’ Account depending on whether the injured person is employed.
Last published: 12 December 2018