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Two claimants receive compensation
of $1418 each week, official figures show, while 10 ACC sexual abuse
claimants are on more than $60,500 a year . One sexual abuse claimant had a
payment of $153,077 in backdated compensation approved by ACC, answers to
written parliamentary questions by Act New Zealand MP Heather Roy showed. Another was compensated $100,002
in backdated weekly payments, while nine backdated compensation payments have
topped $40,000 since 2000. Weekly compensation payments were
based on 80% of a claimant's taxable liable earnings, ACC spokesman Fraser
Folster told NZPA. Those figures indicate those
drawing the top two compensation amounts - which are GST exclusive and
pre-tax - once held down 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 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. People who suffer mental injury
from sexual abuse came from "every segment or demographic" of
society, he said. Claimants would move off the lists
when clinically diagnosed as having returned to independence or
work-readiness, Mr Folster said. 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 Backdated payments were not lump
sums, Mr Folster said. They were an aggregation of either backdated payments
of individual weekly compensation, or backdated payments of individual
quarterly paid independence allowance amounts. Lump sums
can be paid to claimants suffering sexual abuse-related mental injury once
the mental injuries have stabilised, he said. |
