Jenee Tibshraeny: NZ Herald Wellington business editor on ACC Minister Scott Simpson promising a crackdown on fraud

The Government is looking to crack down on ACC-based fraud, but questions have been raised over the details of this move.

ACC Minister Scott Simpson recently promoted that number of fraud investigations launched by ACC increased '12-fold' from two in the 2023 calendar year to 24 in 2025.

In the eight months to the end of August this year, it launched 38 investigations.

NZ Herald Wellington business editor Jenee Tibshraeny explained that the ACC sees millions of claims a year, and there's been a decrease in interventions in claims.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time to welcome Janaye Tibshrani to the programme. Hello, Janaye.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
G'day, Andrew.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
OK, so we're going to talk about the ACC Minister,
Scott Simpson, who's trumpeting a crackdown on fraud. He reckons
the number of investigations by ACC went up 12-fold. So
tell me the story.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah, that's right. Look, Scott Simpson's office got in touch
with me, very pleased that the number of fraud investigations happened.
ACC did increased 12-fold between 2023 and 2025. So I thought, well,
that sounds good. How many investigations are they doing? And
it turns out they're only doing, they did 24 in 2025.

(00:38):
So 12-fold from a very small number of two. Now, look,
I guess the government is happy about that, even though
it's a tiny number in my view, because ACC, the
scheme is massive. You know, ACC receives... 2 million claims

(01:01):
a year, and that's costing us all a lot. Arguably,
a portion of the 2 million claims are fraudulent, or
people pushing the envelope saying, oh, I've got a tennis injury,
when actually they don't. And yes, the ACC investigates. Now,
the number of fraud investigations is what the Minister was

(01:24):
happy about, even though it only got to 22. 24, sorry,
it got to 24 in 2025. But another detail that
it sort of failed to mention was that the number
of fraud interventions ACC did, so that's intervening before they
do a full-blown investigation, that actually halved over that two-year period. So,

(01:49):
you know.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Now, Janaye, come on, come on, you're really throwing them
under the bus here. But remember, in the eight months
to the end of August this year... They've launched 38
investigations just to August. That's up from 24. They're getting better.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Sort of. Yeah, that's right. So, I mean, that's what
they're trying to say. The government's trying to get ACC
to cut its costs because they've been soaring. And in fairness,
they really do have a massive impact on the government's books.
So they're trying to crack down. They're pleased the investigations
are going up, but the interventions have gone down. So
that's intervening at a lower level. So in 2025, they

(02:22):
only made 500 interventions. So to be said, they're trying
to promote the fact ACC is doing a good job.
It's hard to know from these numbers whether they actually are.
I'll just give you another statistic here. The number of prosecutions,
so that's taking someone to court, initiated in 2025, that

(02:43):
was only three for fraud. Three. So just like two
million claims, really, are the only three that are done
for fraud.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Right. Well, people will get up in arms, but then
at the same time, how many times have they claimed
physio for a sports injury when all they did was
step off the curb? I mean, it's rampant throughout our society.
So many people do it. But here's the thing. After
all this, what is ACC saying?

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Well, ACC is really trying to say that they're trying
to intervene early. So they're trying to intervene before they
open an intervention case and before they go and do
a full-blown investigation. or prosecution. So they're saying they're working
with the IRD, you know, they'll track you down if
you're taking the mickey. And they're also strengthening their frontline

(03:31):
teams to try to pick up on fraud. So, you know,
ACC sounds like they are trying to do something, you know,
that they are really coming under pressure from the government
because the cost is rising at quite the rate. I
suppose we're going to need a bit more time to
get some more figures. But just if you look at
Inland Revenue and Ministry of Social Development, which are a

(03:54):
bit different, but, you know, maybe comparisons, they do quite
a lot more prosecutions. So in 2025, they did 45
and 30 that they completed. So that's a lot more
than the three that ACC completed.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Janai, very good work. And we thank you for that.
And thank you for joining us tonight. That is Janai Tipshrani,
New Zealand Herald's Wellington Business Editor.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
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Speaker 1 (04:24):
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