ACC Admits to Short-Changing Claimants
ACC has dropped a bombshell admitting that from a sample of 144 claimants’ rehabilitation plans taken in June 2008 more
than half did not meet ACC’s “standards.”
“This is a staggering admission by ACC” says Mr David Wadsworth, Advocate and Principal of Access Support Services. “It
means over half of the claimants undergoing rehabilitation may have been short-changed and that the legislative
processes were not followed correctly.”
For a number of years Access Support Services has been aware of inherit flaws in the way ACC prepares a claimant’s
individual rehabilitation plan, which ACC ironically now call “My Plan”. This includes failure to give treating medical
practitioners an opportunity to participate in the preparation of a claimant’s rehabilitation plan.
“Over the last 4 years we have written to the Minister of ACC, Opposition Parties, the CEO of ACC, various ACC staff and
other organisations about this matter. We have also issued a number of press releases about this” says an outraged Mr
Wadsworth. “It is a scandal only made worse by the fact it has taken until now for ACC to check what we have been saying
all along is correct.”
“This is why claimants need representation when ACC’s prepares the individual rehabilitation plan,” opines Mr Wadsworth.
“I think ACC has lost the right to be the gatekeeper to a proper rehabilitation plan and it should now make funding
available to claimants so they can access effective representation to enable them to participate more fully in the
rehabilitation process.”
ENDS