Kerre Woodham: On the whole, I think ACC's still working

We're going to open the show today with a chat on ACC, given that it's managed to go from a $911 million surplus to a $7.2 billion deficit in the year to June. That’s got to hurt.

ACC said, in it's just released annual report, that lower than expected rehabilitation performance contributed towards the deficit, and noted the cost of providing services and compensation to injured people increased by 16% over the year. That makes sense. The price of everything has gone up. The price of taxis has gone up to get people to their appointments, the price of scans, everything that you can apply to ACC for will have risen in price. You can understand that the deficit could be a whole lot worse.

If you are one of those people who have been on ACC and that is, as Mike pointed out this morning, 100% of the Kerre Woodham Mornings team, all two of us. We covered a lot of the costs ourselves. We didn't apply for everything that you're entitled to under ACC. I didn’t get a taxi or house cleaning, and we got extra treatment to aid our rehabilitation and recovery to make it that much faster, and we did that at our own expense and time. We made an investment in our own recovery. And that's partly because we can, there are some people who simply do not have that option, but partly because Helen and I saw it as a team effort – thank you very much, ACC, but we will do our very best to do what we can to get back to work. And I bet many of you are the same. How much have you actually claimed what you could have claimed? I bet the figure could be a whole lot worse, so put that down to the Kiwi attitude of fair play. You've done your bit, thanks very much and we'll do ours.

I did notice too that in the reporting on the story —perhaps they mentioned it in the report, and I haven't read the entire ACC report, I've only gone off the news coverage— when they said lower than expected rehabilitation performance contributed towards the deficit, they didn't make any mention of their failed $74 million restructure that removed personal case managers for nearly 12,500 clients, and then oh that's not working, reinstated them. Maybe they did, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. I didn't have time to read the whole report this morning, but surely the “lower than expected” rehab performance could in part be attributed to the fact that they tried a $74 million restructure of case managers that failed dismally, and now personal case managers have been reinstated.

A lawyer specialising in ACC law said the reversal was not a surprise because the agency had been warned the new system would fail. When it comes to the blowout, okay, “lower than expected” rehab performance – that's staff shortages in the health sector, that's holdups in the health sector that means you're delayed in getting treatment, you're delayed in getting to see somebody, and that can attribute towards the “lower than expected” rehab performance. Also, the reason why people are taking longer to get back to work. The average claimant who received weekly compensation for less than a year took 69.7 days to return to work at the beginning of the fiscal year. By the end of the year, that number had risen to 72.8 days. So the delays in the health sector could attribute to that.

And then the other issue that ACC faces is that two court judgements have increased the scope of what ACC covers and the breadth of who's entitled to this coverage. Think of the smashed babies that survive but are so badly damaged that they will never be able to work – ACC has to make an allowance for those babies for life. They will live and they will live well into their middle years, but they'll never work. There is no hope of recovery or rehabilitation for these poor children. They're also having to take into account victims of unreported childhood sexual offending who are unable to work as adults. So they have to make allowance for those people too. So the breadth of what it covers, the scope of what it covers, it could be a whole lot worse.

It's still claimed that this is the best system, that this form of social insurance is still the best system. Do you agree? Do you believe that ACC is still fit for purpose? I do. I think for all of those well publicised cases of those who rort it, remember the famous Auckland businessman who was found playing tennis on his very own tennis court, under flood lights, and he had been off work for ages and ages and was exposed on the cover of the Herald on Sunday or something. He had been rorting in the system for ages. For all of those that rort, there are very many who contribute towards their own recovery and towards their own costs. It could be a whole lot worse. It means we don't have lawyers suing and countersuing, which I think is a very, very good thing. And it does mean that we can be damaged, be fixed and go back to work.

On the whole, I think it's still working. And there are ebbs and flows in terms of making

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the carrywood Of Morning's podcast from News Talk, said, b.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
We're going to open the show today with a chat
on ACC. Given that it's managed to go from a
nine hundred and eleven million dollar surplus to a seven
point two billion with a b billion dollar deficit in
the year to June, that's got to hurt. ACC said,
And it's just released annual report. Then lower than expected

(00:33):
rehabilitation performance contributed towards the deficit, and noted the cost
of providing services and compensation to injured people increased by
sixteen percent over the year. That makes sense. Everything has
gone up. The price of everything has gone up. The
price of taxis has gone up to get people to
their appointments, the price of scans, the price of everything

(00:56):
has gone up. So everything that you can apply to
ACC for will have risen in price. You can understand
that the deficit could be a whole lot worse if
you are one of those people who have been on ACC.
And that is, as Mike pointed out this morning, one
hundred percent of the carry Wooden Morning's team, all two

(01:18):
of us, we covered a lot of the costs ourselves.
We didn't apply for everything you know that you're entitled
to under ACC. I don't think you've got a taxi once,
did you, Helen? And neither did I once. That's right.
Didn't get the house cleaning, or we didn't get any
of that you got to You didn't use the taxis
very often. I think you've got it once. I never

(01:39):
used a taxi. That's what it was for, you know.
And we got extra treatment to aid our rehabilitation and
recovery to make it that much faster, and we did
that at our own expense. In time, we made an
investment in our own recovery. And that's partly because we
can there are some people who simply do not have
that option, but partly because Helen and I saw it

(02:02):
as a team effort. You know, Thank you very much, ACC.
But we will do our very best to do what
we can to get back to work. And I bet
many of you are the same. How much have you
actually claimed that you could have claimed? I bet the
figure could be our whole lot worse. So put that
down to I guess the key we attitude of fair play.

(02:23):
You've done your bit, thanks very much, and we'll do ours.
I did notice too, though, that in the reporting on
the story. Perhaps they mentioned it in the report, and
I haven't read the entire ACC report. I've only gone
off the news coverage. When they said lower than expected
rehabilitation performance contributed towards the deficit, they didn't make any

(02:48):
mention about their failed seventy four million dollar restructure that
removed personal case managers for nearly twelve five hundred clients,
and then, oh, that's not working, reinstated them. Maybe they did.
I'll give them the benefit of the data. I didn't
have time to read the whole report this morning, but

(03:11):
surely the lower than expected rehab performance could in part
be attributed to the fact that they tried a seventy
four million dollar restructure of case managers, that it failed dismally,
and now personal case managers have been reinstated. A lawyer
specializing in ACC law said the reversal was not a
surprise because the agency had been warned the new system

(03:32):
would fail. So when it comes to the blowout, Okay,
lower than expected rehab performance, that's staff shortages in the
health sector. That's hold ups in the health sector. That
means you're delayed in getting treatment, you're delayed in getting
to see somebody and that can attribute towards the lower

(03:57):
than expected rehab performance. Also the reason why people are
taking longer to get back to work. The average claimant
received weekly compensation for less than a year took sixty
nine point seven days to return to work at the
beginning of the fiscal year. By the end of the year,
that number had risen to seventy two point eight days,

(04:18):
So the delays in the hell sector could attribute to that.
And then the other issue that ACC faces is that
two court judgments have increased the scope of what ACC
covers and the breadth of who's entitled to this coverage.
Think of the smashed babies that survive but are so
badly damaged that they will never be able to work.

(04:42):
ACC has to make an allowance for those babies for life.
They will live, and they will live well into their
middle years, but they'll never work. They'll never be able
to work. There is no hope of recovery or rehabilitation
for these poor children. They're also having to take into
account victims of unreported childhood sexual offending who are unable

(05:06):
to work as adults, so they have to make allowance
for those people too. So the breadth of what it
covers the scope of what it covers, it could be
a whole lot worse. It's still claimed that this is
the best system, This form of social insurance is still

(05:27):
the best system. Do you agree? Do you believe that
ACC is still for purpose? I do. I think for
all of those well publicized cases of those who wrought it.
Remember the famous Auckland businessman who was found playing tennis

(05:47):
under his on his very own tennis called under floodlights,
and he had been off work for ages and ages
and was exposed on the cover of the Herald on Sundays.
He had been wrought in the system for ages. For
all of those that wrought there are very many who
contribute towards their own recovery and towards their own costs.
Could be a whole lot worse. It means we don't

(06:10):
have lawyers suing and counter sewing, which I think is
a very very good thing. And it does mean that
we can be damaged, be fixed and go back to work.
On the whole, I think it's still working. And there

(06:30):
are surely there are ebbs and flows in terms of
making a profit, investing, putting money aside, getting a better
return some years than others. As far as I'm concerned, Yep,
there are problems with ACC. Yes, the seventy four million
dollar restructure that was a U tune that led to
know where unfortunate, But there we go. We have to

(06:54):
live with that, reconcile that into the books, learn from it,
reinstate the case managers, help people get back into work.
As far as I'm concerned, I'm still happy to pay
my levies, still happy to see ACC continue to provide
the services and the treatments it does.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
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