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Waikato Times
April 3, 2002
Author voices criticism of ACC lump-sum payouts
NZPA
Dunedin author Lynley
Hood has joined critics of new laws allowing lump sum payments to victims of
physical injury and sexual abuse, which came into effect this month.
People who suffer from injury or sexual abuse after April 1 will be eligible
for a lump sum payment ranging from $2500 to $100,000 under the new Injury
Prevention, Rehabilitation and Compensation Bill.
The payments will be administered by the Accident Compensation Corporation
and the new law marks a return to lump sum payments which were scrapped by
National in 1992 in favour of independence allowance, set at a maximum of
$62.48 a week.
Hood, who spent several years researching the implications of sexual assault
allegations for her book on the Peter Ellis Christchurch Civic Creche case, said
the legislation was a minefield. "There's the basic issue of lump sum
compensation and whether it's a good idea at all . . .," she said.
"The biggest problem as far as sexual abuse goes is the problem of
fraud, which ACC refuses to face up to."
Hood said there was no mechanism for determining whether the sexual abuse
actually took place and ACC policy guidelines encouraged "vulnerable
people into believing they had been sexually abused and that was the cause of
their problems".
While it was appropriate people who had been the victim of physical or sexual
injury were helped to recover, large cash payments were not necessarily the
solution. "I think the Government needs to look really hard at what
constitutes safe and effective therapy."
However, Council of Trade Unions spokeswoman Lyndy McIntyre said the
legislation was long overdue. "The lump sum scheme had to happen. What's
been acknowledged is that when people lose the ability to work through
injury, it's more than a weekly thing, it's affected them for life." --
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