Peter Ellis web site -
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Two claimants receive compensation
of $1418 each week, and 10 are on more than $60,500 a year. One claimant had a payment of more
than $153,000 in backdated compensation approved by the Accident Compensation
Corporation, answers to written parliamentary questions by Act list MP
Heather Roy reveal. Another was compensated $100,002
in backdated weekly payments, and nine backdated compensation payments have
topped $40,000 since 2000. Weekly compensation payments are
based on 80 per cent of a claimant's taxable liable earnings, said ACC
spokesman Fraser Folster. That indicates that those drawing
the top two compensation amounts once had jobs paying $92,000 a year. "ACC does not provide cover
and entitlements for sexual abuse per se, but for mental injury arising from
sexual abuse," Mr Folster said. "The diagnosis of mental
injury is based on clinical medical evidence [such as] an x-ray indicating
internal damage to organs or bones." ACC used accredited health
providers to determine whether a claimant had suffered a mental injury
arising from sexual abuse, he said. Mrs Roy said it was hard to
believe that somebody suffering severe mental injury resulting from sexual
abuse could have held down a high-paying job. "You have to be functioning
at a pretty high level to earn that sort of money, and to be suddenly struck
down is hard to comprehend," she said. "That's not to say it
doesn't happen. I'm sure it does. "The real crux of the matter
is people no longer have to prove that they were sexually abused." ACC annual payouts to sex abuse
claimants have soared by more than $9 million in the past three years. ACC paid out $27,231,652 to claimants
in the year ending last October, compared with $17,951,300 for the same
period in 2001. Mr Folster would not provide
general background about those topping the compensation payment lists, citing
privacy considerations. He said people who suffered mental
injury from sexual abuse came from "every segment or demographic"
of society. In April 2002 the Government
introduced lump-sum payments of up to $100,000 for sex abuse claims,
prompting predictions from Opposition MPs that costs would rise. At the time a Mrs Roy said lump-sum payments did
claimants no favours, as they became dependent on the state. "When you're paying lump sums
of the magnitude of $153,007, there is no incentive for anyone to move off
that sort of income." |