A think-tank is calling on ACC to make rehabilitation its priority ahead of paperwork.  

The Accident Compensation Corporation's claims pool stopped growing in April after once increasing 15% annually.  

A New Zealand Initiative report says there's evidence to suggest it could be achieving this by cutting back on rehabilitation outcomes.  

Executive Director Oliver Hartwich told Mike Hosking that currently a person is considered rehabilitated if ACC hasn’t paid them for five weeks – but this isn’t a real measure. 

He says the real measure of success isn’t whether they get them off the books, it’s whether they restore them to health and bring them back into the labour market. 

The problem, Hartwich says, is that some people don’t return to work at all, so we have to make sure they don’t linger on ACC, and that it doesn’t become another form of welfare.  

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