Who has misled the Ministers if the above documentation shows clearly that http://www.acc.co.nz staff were receiving bonuses?
Where are the claimants now who were supposedly rehabilitated?
Alliance criticises ACC staff `bonus': [2 Edition]
Dominion [Wellington, New Zealand]
09 June 1998: 2.
STAFF at ACC were being encouraged by bonus payments to return ACC claimants back to work before they were ready, the
Alliance said yesterday.
However, these allegations were strongly denied at ministerial level and by the corporation itself.
During the past two years ACC has put more emphasis on early rehabilitation, to get claimants back to work as soon as possible.
Alliance accident compensation spokeswoman Laila Harre said yesterday that the premature dumping of people off ACC was a certain outcome of a bonus scheme linked to the length of time someone received compensation.
"It's human nature," she said. "Claimants have been treated not so much according to their needs but their case manager's need to meet a budget."
Each year ACC's 42 branches received a pool of money based on the office's performance on a national scale. From this pool bonuses were paid to case managers, based on the performance of individuals against set targets.
Four of the 13 performance indicators were based on the length of time a claimant received compensation. A fifth was based on how often claims were reactivated.
But
ACC spokesman Alan Seay said it was wrong to say staff were paid extra for removing people from the books.
Early rehabilitation was one of ACC's key goals, he said. But it would be self-defeating to cut compensation too early because of the risk of repeat injury. -- NZPA
Supplied by New Zealand Press Association
Copyright Independent Newspapers, Ltd. Jun 9, 1998