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ACC Weekly Compensation

Weekly compensation is the entitlement that keeps an injured household running: 80 per cent of your pre-injury earnings while the covered injury stops you working. It is also where the scheme's hardest fights happen — calculations that shortchange irregular earners, and terminations when ACC decides you can work again. Every one of those decisions is challengeable on its own clock. Call 0800 461 100 free, any hour, to understand your position.

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ACC Weekly Compensation at a glance

The rate

80% of your pre-injury earnings, calculated under the Act's earner rules, subject to statutory caps and adjustments

When it starts

Work injuries: the employer pays the first week, ACC from week two. Non-work injuries: a one-week stand-down, then ACC

Who qualifies

Earners — employees and the self-employed — unable to work because of a covered injury, certified unfit (or fit only for reduced work)

Working partially

Part-time or light-duties earnings are abated against the entitlement — you are not forced to choose between recovery and rent

The fights

Calculation disputes (irregular and self-employed earnings especially) and terminations on "vocational independence" — both reviewable within 3 months

How the 80% is actually calculated

For a salaried employee the arithmetic is straightforward: 80 per cent of pre-injury earnings, within the statutory framework. The disputes cluster everywhere else: irregular hours, overtime and second jobs (which count, but only if captured); recent job changes where the "pre-injury" window misrepresents real earnings; and the self-employed, whose compensation runs off tax-return history that may badly lag a growing business. The calculation arrives as a decision — which means a wrong one is reviewable like any other, on the 3-month clock.

Check the numbers against your own records early: payslips, IRD summaries, contracts. Under-calculation compounds weekly, and back-corrections get harder as time passes. Talk it through with a lawyer now →

Medical certificates — the system's heartbeat

Weekly compensation runs on medical certification: your treating doctor certifies you unfit for work, or fit only for selected duties, for defined periods. Gaps in certification become gaps in payment, so renewals matter practically as much as medically. Be precise with your doctor about your actual job's demands — "fit for light duties" means something different for a scaffolder than for an accountant, and certificates written without the job in view are where premature return-to-work pressure starts. Talk it through with a lawyer now →

When ACC moves to stop payments

The scheme's flashpoint: vocational independence. After rehabilitation, ACC can assess that you are able to work 30-plus hours a week in occupations identified for you — and end weekly compensation on that basis. The process has stages (occupational and medical assessments, proposed decisions) and each stage is contestable: the occupations chosen may not match your real capacity, the medical assessment may not reflect your condition, the process itself may have shortcut your input.

A termination decision is exactly that — a decision, reviewable within 3 months. Do not accept the assessment as a verdict: these are among the most frequently and successfully challenged decisions in the scheme, and the difference is almost always the quality of the medical evidence answering ACC's assessors. Talk it through with a lawyer now →

What runs alongside the weekly money

Weekly compensation is one entitlement among several: treatment and rehabilitation costs, transport to treatment, home help and equipment, workplace modifications — and, where an injury leaves permanent impairment, a separate lump-sum entitlement once the condition stabilises. Each has its own decisions and its own review rights. If your income has stopped, also check the interaction with other support — but the ACC entitlement is the one calculated on YOUR earnings, and it is worth defending properly before falling back on anything less. Talk it through with a lawyer now →

Protecting your weekly compensation

Verify the calculation at the startCheck ACC's figure against payslips and tax records — especially with overtime, second jobs or self-employment. A wrong base compounds weekly.

Keep certification continuousNo certificate, no payment. Renew on time, and make sure certificates reflect your actual job's physical reality.

Challenge cut-offs inside 3 monthsVocational independence terminations are routinely overturned with the right evidence. Call 0800 461 100 free, any hour — and book a NZ$295 (GST inclusive) consultation with a New Zealand lawyer on the call before you concede an income.

ACC Weekly Compensation — your questions answered

Is weekly compensation really 80% of everything I was earning?

It is 80% of pre-injury earnings as the Act calculates them — which should capture overtime and multiple jobs, within statutory caps. The traps are evidential: earnings ACC never saw, atypical pre-injury windows, and self-employed lag. If the number looks light, dispute the calculation — it is a reviewable decision.

I'm self-employed and my last tax return doesn't reflect this year's income. Am I stuck?

Not necessarily — the earner rules for the self-employed have their own provisions, and the right evidence of your actual earning pattern can move the calculation. This is a known problem area with known arguments; get advice before accepting a figure built on stale returns.

Can I work a few hours without losing everything?

Yes — partial earnings are abated against the entitlement rather than switching it off. Graduated return-to-work is how the scheme is supposed to function. Keep ACC informed and the certificates aligned with the hours you actually work.

ACC says I can be a parking attendant, so my payments stop. Seriously?

That is the vocational independence mechanism — capacity for identified occupations at 30+ hours ends the entitlement. The occupations must genuinely match your skills and medical reality, and both assessments are contestable. A review within 3 months, armed with medical evidence answering the assessors, is the standard counter — and it succeeds often.

My employer wants me back before my doctor agrees. Who wins?

Your certification governs your ACC position, and a premature return against medical advice risks both health and entitlement. Return-to-work planning is meant to be tripartite — you, ACC, employer — around what your doctor certifies. Pressure past that line raises employment-law issues of its own; the free line covers both fronts.