ACC contacting clients over possible interest payments

24 May 2013

ACC contacting clients over possible interest payments

ACC has begun contacting clients who may benefit from a recent Court of Appeal decision that clarified circumstances in which interest should be paid on back-dated weekly compensation.

Sid Miller, ACC’s General Manager Claims, said the Court had more clearly defined the circumstances in which ACC should pay interest on back-dated compensation in cases where payments had been suspended but later reinstated from the date of suspension.

“The Court of Appeal has confirmed that interest is not automatically payable on back-dated weekly compensation,” Mr Miller said.

“Instead a number of factors need to be considered, including the nature of the evidence on which ACC relied to stop weekly compensation, and the date on which ACC received all necessary medical and financial information required to make a back-dated payment.

“The judgment means that some clients, depending on the facts of their case, may be eligible to have interest on their back-dated weekly compensation assessed or reassessed.

“At this point we can’t give an accurate indication of the number of clients that may be affected. We need to firstly identify potentially eligible people, and then undertake a case-by-case re-examination of their files,” Mr Miller said.

“As a starting point, we have begun contacting clients who were more readily identifiable as being potentially affected. At the same time we are getting in touch with our Advocates and Representatives Group network, as well as Community Law Centres, and Citizens Advice Bureaux, asking for their help in identifying clients they know of, who should have their case looked at in light of the decision.

“Given the historic nature of some of the cases that might be affected, and the need to look at the individual circumstances of each case in turn, it is likely to take a number of months to identify all affected clients and to then begin resolving whether they are entitled to an interest payment,” Mr Miller said.

ENDS

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