Two sexual abuse victims getting $73,000 a year from ACC

Some sexual abuse claimants are getting more than $1400 a week in ongoing compensation from ACC, or a gross annual income of $73,000.

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 Christchurch law firm launched a campaign to attract new ACC clients.

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."

- NZPA