10 March 2022
Tui Aroha Williams
[FYI request #18373 email] Tēnā koe Tui
Your Official Information Act request, reference: GOV-016503
Thank you for your email of 29 January 2022, asking for the following information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):
Dear Accident Compensation Corporation, Please provide all written complaints in your archive
from the field of sexual abuse survivors and or current abuse survivors also most importantly all
Accident Compensation Corporation cases Accident Compensation Corporation lost in court or by
mediation relating to sexual abuse survivors being neglected by Accident Compensation
Corporation at time of injury.
Complaints can be made through various channels in ACC Depending on the nature of the complaint, it may be resolved through those various channels. ACC
takes all complaints seriously and works to resolve the client’s issues with them.
Many complaints are recorded only on the client’s claim file and are resolved without needing to be
escalated beyond the Recovery Team Member. In most instances, these form the basis of a client’s
correspondence with their Recovery Team Member, and it is not easily identified in our system as a
complaint.
The data that we have been able to collate is based on Customer Feedback cases created in Eos (ACC’s
case management system). This is used by the Customer Resolutions team to manage customer
complaints, including complaints about accredited employers and third-party administrators. This data
includes complaints that are linked in Eos to a sensitive claim. Due to the limitations above, the data
should not be considered a complete definitive measure of the number of complaints received.
The Customer Feedback case process was implemented in 2010; however, in 2016 ACC refined the
complaint process, primarily how complaints were recorded. This change allowed for more detailed and
accurate records. Therefore, we have kept the information separate as we would be unable to
guarantee that similarly named categories record the same type of complaints.
There are approximately 28,800 sensitive claims being actively managed at ACC as of 03 March 2022
Please find the following tables on complaints where the complaint is linked to a sensitive claim. Table 1
shows complaints from April 2016 when the current complaints process was implemented. Table 2
shows data from the previous complaints process which was in place between 2010 and April 2016.
GOV-016503
Table 1: Complaints received between 18 April 2016 and 12 February 2022 linked to a sensitive claim
Complaints Received Financial Year
2015/16
2016/
2017/
2018/
2019/
2020/
2021/22
Issue Type
(Partial)
17
18
19
20
21
YTD
Total
Alternative Dispute Resolution / Review /
-
-
<10
<10
<10
<10
-
..
Appeal
Cover
<10
<10
<10
14
12
<10
<10
44
Customer Service
<10
49
57
85
..
87
48
418
Entitlement
<10
16
19
39
..
33
10
181
Privacy
<10
<10
<10
12
20
20
13
75
Service Provider
<10
<10
<10
<10
10
<10
<10
50
Surgery
-
-
<10
<10
-
-
-
<10
Weekly Compensation
<10
<10
<10
22
33
14
<10
100
Other
<10
<10
-
-
-
-
-
<10
Total
20
94
97
186
224
177
88
886
Table 2: Complaints received between 1 September 2010 and 17 April 2016 linked to a sensitive claim
by complaint type
Complaint Creation Financial Year
Complaint Type 2010/11 (Partial)
2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
2014/15
2015/16 (Partial)
Total
Cover
-
-
-
-
<10
<10
<10
Entitlement
29
25
22
22
19
26
143
Multiple
29
13
11
<10
<10
<10
72
Provider
-
-
-
-
<10
<10
..
Service
..
129
..
54
61
48
451
Other
<10
14
12
11
<10
<10
47
Unselected
-
-
<10
<10
<10
<10
<10
Total
143
181
136
91
98
88
737
Caveats
• A complaint may include multiple issues. For these tables, all issues on each complaint are
included, which means some complaints are counted more than once.
• Data is displayed in financial years. A financial year is 1 July to 30 June.
• Some values are notated as (-) which means that the figure is 0.
• Data was extracted 18 February 2022 and may differ if re-run at a later date.
ACC does not routinely disclose low value numbers related to claims Accordingly, some of the values in the tables only indicate that the number is fewer than 10 (denoted as
<10). In other instances, values are suppressed and notated as (..). This limits the potential for particular
individuals, or matters specific to certain individuals, from being identified.
Withholding in this way is necessary to protect the privacy of these individuals. This decision has been
made under section 9(2)(a) of the Act. In doing so, we have considered the public interest in making the
information available and have determined that it does not outweigh the need to protect the privacy of
these persons.
Accident Compensation Corporation
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GOV-016503
We are refusing to provide the full written complaints to protect the privacy of individuals involved
and their personal information
This decision has been made under section 9(2)(a) of the Act. We have considered the public interest in
making this information available and have determined that it does not outweigh the need to protect
the privacy of these persons.
We are refusing to provide complaints’ data prior to 2010
There are limitations on the data prior to 2010 because they were stored in a separate complaints
database. These complaint files have since been scanned into Eos; however, they are not easily located.
Therefore, we are refusing to provide this information as it would require substantial manual collation
and research through each individual claim to gather the required information. This decision has been
made under section 18 (f) of the Act
In making this decision, we have considered extending our response timeframe for your request and/or
charging (under the Act). However, we have not offered either of these options as we have determined
that the resources required to extract the information would have a significant impact on the everyday
functions of the team(s) involved.
Court and mediation cases are not readily available
ACC does not have a recording method that would allow us to easily identify all statutory appeals
involving survivors of sexual offending where the outcome was unfavorable to ACC. Gathering this
information would require a substantial collation and research through a manual case by case search of
all cases from 1972. Therefore, we are refusing to provide this information. This decision has been made
under section 18(f) of the Act.
In making this decision, we have considered extending our response timeframe for your request,
charging (under the Act), and/or refining the time period. However, we have not offered these options
as we have determined that the resources required to extract the information would have a significant
impact on the everyday functions of the team(s) involved.
How to get in contact
If you have any questions, you can email me at
[email address]. If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the Ombudsman.
Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by phoning 0800
802 602.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Sara Freitag
Acting Manager Official Information Act Services
Government Engagement & Support
Accident Compensation Corporation
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