Receiving weekly compensation payments
Learn when you will get paid weekly compensation and how it is calculated.
If there are changes to your income let us know - like getting paid for a public holiday or receiving income support.
On this page
When will I get paid?
We'll start paying you after we've accepted your claim, checked you're eligible, and processed your application. You become eligible for weekly compensation 7 days after the injury prevented you from working.
Depending on the situation, if this is an injury you have had cover for previously, we can start paying you from the date this has reoccurred.
Learn more about applying for weekly compensation
Payment in the first 7 days
If you’re an employee or shareholder-employee and your injury happened at work, your employer must pay you for the first week.
If you were injured outside of work, during the first 7 days you’ll need to take leave, like sick or annual leave, if you have it.
Your first weekly compensation payment
Once your application has been processed, you will receive an initial payment of any weekly compensation owing. The day this payment is made on may differ from the day you selected on your application. This is because the first payment is made automatically when your weekly compensation set up is completed.
This initial payment will date back to the day you became eligible to receive weekly compensation, and it may be a different amount to what you were expecting. You’ll receive a letter confirming the payment amount. You can also view this letter in your MyACC account.
Ongoing weekly payments
Future weekly compensation payments will be made on the day you chose in your application. Because we pay compensation every week, it may be different from your normal pay cycle. Any tax will come out of your payments like with your normal wages.
To set up KiwiSaver contributions on your payments, send a completed KS2 KiwiSaver deduction form to your recovery team.
Download KS2 KiwiSaver deduction form from the Inland Revenue website
How much weekly compensation will I get?
Tip: View upcoming payment dates and amounts in your MyACC account. Log in to MyACC now
We pay weekly compensation of up to 80% of your earnings if you have an injury we cover. This is based on your weekly income before the injury prevented you from being able to work.
If your employer can find options for you to return to work, like reduced hours or alternative duties, they will pay you for these hours on top of weekly compensation. This means you can earn up to 100% of your pre-injury income.
If your employer cannot offer reduced hours or alternative duties, you are still eligible for weekly compensation. You do not need a ‘fully unfit’ medical certificate.
Olivia usually earns $1,000 a week for 40 hours of work. While she's certified fully unfit to work, we pay her 80% of her usual earnings. This is $800 each week.
As Olivia starts to recover, her doctor says she can start working reduced hours and issues her a ‘fit for selected work’ medical certificate.
Olivia can return to work for 20 hours and her employer pays her for this time. This is $500.
Olivia notifies us using her MyACC account that she worked 20 hours the previous week. We amend her weekly compensation payment to $500.
This means that, combined, Olivia has earned 100% of her usual weekly income of $1,000.
Calculating the rate
You may notice a change in your weekly compensation payments if you are receiving it for more than 4 weeks.
We calculate how much we’ll pay based on your earnings in the 4 weeks before your injury prevented you from being able to work some or all of your usual duties. This is the short-term rate.
If you receive weekly compensation beyond 4 weeks, it changes to the long-term rate. This is based on your earnings in the previous year before your injury prevented you from being able to work.
The rate of compensation we can provide is set in the Accident Compensation Act 2001. There are minimum and maximum weekly compensation payment amounts that change each year.
From 1 April 2024, the minimum rate of weekly compensation payable is 80% of the adult minimum wage. This is a wage of $926, for a forty-hour week. The minimum rate of weekly compensation payable is therefore $740.80.
The current maximum rate payable is $2,257.17.
Permanent employees
If you weren’t employed for the whole year, we base the calculation on how long you were in permanent employment over that year.
Casual or non-permanent employees
We base our calculation on all PAYE earnings in the last year.
Self-employed or shareholder-employees
If you’re self-employed or a shareholder-employee, we calculate your compensation based on your earnings listed in your most recent tax return with Inland Revenue. In some cases, if you haven’t lodged your returns with Inland Revenue yet, we can make an estimated payment to you in the meantime. It can take us a little longer to process your weekly compensation application while we calculate these payments.
Changes to payments
You'll need to let us know if you're paid any other taxable income, including for a public holiday, while you're getting weekly compensation. It could affect how much we pay you.
Let us know using your MyACC account. On your timeline open the weekly compensation page to enter your work earnings and expand the My Medical Certificate section.
If you’re unable to use MyACC, contact your recovery team or our contact centre.
If your payment falls around a public holiday, we try to pay you earlier. Payments can take 1 to 3 days to process depending on your bank.
If you received payment for statutory holidays, but did not work, let us know the number of hours you were paid for.
If you worked a statutory holiday, confirm the hours worked, hourly rate, and public holiday rate applicable, for example, time-and-a-half or double time.
If you receive New Zealand Superannuation or support from Work and Income New Zealand, this may affect your weekly compensation payments. Get in touch with our team to find out more.
If you receive weekly compensation while returning to part time work and receiving wages, this means you have two sources of income. One of them will need a secondary tax code.
We recommend you contact Inland Revenue about tax codes.
Choosing the right tax code
If you haven't received a payment you were expecting and need this urgently, contact us.
If we pay you too much weekly compensation, we’ll write to you and let you know the next steps to correct this.
Once your health provider has assessed you as 'fully fit' through your medical certificate you can return to work. When you are working your regular pre-injury role or an alternative suitable role, we’ll stop weekly compensation payments.
If your injury is stopping you from starting full-time work of at least 30 hours per week, we may be able to pay you for loss of earnings. You could be eligible if:
- you've turned 18
- you were injured before you turned 18, or injured after turning 18 but you've been in full-time study or training
- you can't work because of your injury for six months or more
- you're no longer in full-time study or training
- you're earning or already getting weekly compensation but it's less than what we'd pay for loss of potential earnings.
How much we can pay for loss of potential earnings
We can make weekly payments at 80% of the weekly minimum wage.
Applying for loss of potential earnings
To apply, talk to your recovery team. They’ll talk you through the process and forms needed to apply.
Apply for weekly compensation now
There are two ways to apply for weekly compensation:
- Online using MyACC. Register then log in and access the application in the 'Get support' section.
- Contact our claims team.
If you haven’t received a registration code by email or text, or don't want to use MyACC, contact us to apply for weekly compensation over the phone.
Phone 0800 101 996 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm)