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Otago Daily Times
February 5, 2004
ACC
Letter to
the Editor
by Peter Sara and Michael
Gibson, Dunedin
Dr Muriel Newman's scaremongering about ACC payments
to victims of sexual offences ( ODT , 27.1.04) is inaccurate and misleading.
The facts are that the increase in ACC's payments of independence allowance
to claimants who meet the criteria in the legalisation follows the successful
initiative of a Christchurch law firm in alerting victims that their lawful
entitlements were being withheld by ACC. All the claimants were invited to do
was apply for what they were legally entitled to.
We should note that it was Act New Zealand's
ideological stablemate, in the form of the National Party, which enacted the
legislation, with Act's help, and was then responsible for ACC's failure to
tell claimants about the full extent of their entitlements.
The position with regard to payments of lump sum compensation for permanent
impairment under the current legislation, whether for the results of physical
injury or sexual abuse, is somewhat different. As noted by ACC Minister Ruth
Dyson, claimants currently have to overcome considerable obstacles before
they qualify for the minimum awards. Also, as you report, no-one has yet
received lump-sum compensation for sexual abuse. We strongly deprecate the
actions of hard-right politicians in demonising victims of personal injury in
an attempt to scrabble up a few votes. We do not think ODT readers will be
taken in.
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