ACC says a new turnaround plan will restore its finances without making it harder for people to get cover. But many claimants say they’ve already been unfairly cut off, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s excerpt from The Bulletin.

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Turnaround time

ACC has unveiled a long-awaited turnaround plan aimed at hauling its finances back from a projected $26b deficit by 2030, the Herald’s Jenée Tibshraeny reports (paywalled). The agency insists the fix lies in “doing the basics better” rather than stripping back what the scheme covers. Central to the plan is a renewed focus on rehabilitation. Individual case managers are being reinstated – ACC plans to hire 285 additional claims management staff – and expectations around treatment and recovery will be strengthened.

ACC chair Jan Dawson said the changes won’t make it harder for people to get cover, but “it may be tougher because you’ll be expected to undertake the treatment and participate”, adding the approach was fairer for both claimants and levy-payers. Under the plan, ACC forecasts a $2b surplus by 2030, a figure that reflects the new operational reforms and a favourable accounting change agreed with the government last year. ACC minister Scott Simpson welcomed the reset after months of publicly criticising the agency’s performance and urging it to lift its game.

How the books blew out

The urgency behind the plan is clear. Without intervention, ACC’s deficit was on track to swell to $26b by June 2030 – as Tibshraeny observes, that’s nearly double the government’s entire operating deficit last year. Over the past decade, the number of people receiving weekly compensation for more than a year has doubled, while annual spending on rehabilitation and treatment has jumped from $2.1b to $4.4b, far outstripping inflation and population growth.

Dawson said the deterioration was incremental rather than sudden, but the cumulative effect was enormous given ACC handles around two million new claims a year. With political pressure intensifying, in July 2025 ACC said it was tightening its claims management and seeking to slow the growth of long-term compensation.

Minister for ACC Scott Simpson had considered narrowing ACC’s scope altogether – particularly after a 2023 court ruling expanded liabilities for historic abuse. “However, the Government hasn’t made the change, which would draw criticism for disproportionately affecting women, and would come hot on the heels of its pay equity change, which again saved billions, arguably at the expense of women,” Tibshraeny writes.

A culture under strain

The organisation itself has also been under stress. Following a series of reports by Stuff’s Paula Penfold about alleged inappropriate conduct by two deputy chief executives, a workplace culture review was commissioned by the board in March last year. As The Post’s Anna Whyte reported (paywalled), the report, released in September, found that ACC suffered from a siloed, hierarchical structure and a workplace marked by low trust in complaints processes. The turnaround plan explicitly leans on that work, arguing that faster rehabilitation and better outcomes will not be delivered without improving internal culture.

The clients ‘exited’ from ACC

But the push to rein in costs has come with human consequences. Reporting by RNZ’s Anusha Bradley has detailed the experiences of long-term claimants cut off from weekly compensation amid a drive to “exit” thousands from the scheme. More than 8,000 people left the long-term claim pool in a single year, with ACC planning to remove thousands more, often amid disputes over whether ongoing symptoms were injury-related or due to pre-existing conditions.

Advocates warn that people are being pushed out before they are ready, shifting costs to the Ministry of Social Development, families and communities rather than resolving them through rehabilitation. ACC insists decisions are made on a case-by-case basis and that it has a responsibility to levy-payers to fund only injury-related support, but critics say the balance has tipped too far towards cost-cutting. Whether the new turnaround plan can restore trust while repairing the books may determine whether ACC can still claim to honour the spirit of the scheme it was created to protect.