Yoga levies same as bone-crunching impact sports

Illustration / Rod Emmerson

A Wellington yoga instructor was shocked to find she was stung by ACC at the same rate as business owners in bone-crunching impact sports such as rugby.

Sadhana yoga director Alison Tilley discovered private yoga instructors pay the same ACC levy rates as rugby, netball and downhill skiing.

She would like to see people such as her charged at a rate better reflecting the cost of the industry.

Every business and self-employed person is given a classification by ACC to determine how much they pay in levies.

Outside gyms, yoga is grouped with "sports and physical recreation instruction", requiring private instructors to fork out $1.37 in levies for every $100 they earn.

Health and fitness centres, such as gyms, pay only 70 cents, including for the yoga classes they offer.

Ms Tilley said it was unfair private yoga instructors paid the same levy rates as sports with a high rate of injury.

"Yoga is an aesthetic practice which incorporates meditation, stretching and breath work," she said.

"People come to yoga to heal themselves, not to get injured."

The rate businesses are charged is based on the cost of injury claims made by each industry, however, ACC does not collect statistics on yoga injuries.

In 2014, 889 work-related sports injury claims were lodged for rugby, league and touch.

1700 ACC claims were lodged under "sports and physical recreation instruction", but only 10 were down to yoga.

"I personally don't want to be associated with an industry that is as high-risk as downhill skiing," Ms Tilley said.

She has started an online petition to change the classification unit yoga instructors fall under and it has attracted almost 400 signatures.

Ms Tilley would like yoga instructors better acknowledged by ACC so they are charged at a rate to more accurately representing the cost of the industry.

Fellow yoga instructor Paula Sheridan agreed with Ms Tilley.

"ACC would be wise to consider promoting yoga more and watch claims go down," she said.

ACC's spokeswoman Stephanie Melville said the corporation would encourage people wishing to have an ACC classification changed to make submissions during the levy consultations in September.

She did not respond to questions about why yoga was grouped with the other sports.

Ms Tilley said she would aim to submit her petition during the consultation.