ACC Lump Sum Payment Amounts: The Full Published Scale
ACC's lump sum for permanent injury pays $4,575.78 at 10% whole-person impairment and $183,030.60 at 80% or more, with every percentage point in between carrying its own published amount. Those figures are valid from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 (ACC, financial support for a permanent injury, retrieved 19 August 2026). The payment is tax-free, and it does not affect any other ACC support you receive.
Three qualifying conditions sit in front of that scale, and each one turns people away. You need an assessed whole-person impairment of 10% or more. You need to have survived the injury by at least 28 days and be alive when assessed. And the injury must have happened on or after 1 April 2002 (Accident Compensation Act 2001, Schedule 1, clause 54, retrieved 19 August 2026).
What does ACC pay at each impairment level?
The scale is not linear. The Act directs that the amounts be prescribed "so that the amount increases exponentially or otherwise as the degree of impairment increases" (section 326(2)(h), retrieved 19 August 2026), and the published table does exactly that.
Amounts published by ACC for 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 (retrieved 19 August 2026). ACC publishes a value for every whole percentage point from 10 to 80; the table below shows every fifth point.
| Whole-person impairment | Lump sum payment |
|---|---|
| 10% | $4,575.78 |
| 15% | $7,888.59 |
| 20% | $11,821.96 |
| 25% | $16,492.89 |
| 30% | $22,042.38 |
| 35% | $28,631.45 |
| 40% | $36,459.68 |
| 45% | $45,755.79 |
| 50% | $56,796.21 |
| 55% | $69,908.54 |
| 60% | $85,482.56 |
| 65% | $103,979.67 |
| 70% | $125,948.84 |
| 75% | $152,041.68 |
| 80% and above | $183,030.60 |
Reproduced from ACC's published table, valid 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. ACC states that all impairments of 80% or higher are awarded the highest amount.
The curvature is the point. Going from 10% to 20% impairment adds $7,246. Going from 70% to 80% adds $57,082. Two percentage points near the top of the scale are worth more than the entire payment at the bottom of it, which is why the assessment percentage, and any argument about it, matters so much more at the severe end.
Who qualifies, and what the assessment actually measures
The threshold is 10% whole-person impairment, assessed by an external assessor ACC authorises and pays for (Schedule 1, clauses 54 and 59, retrieved 19 August 2026). The assessor must exclude any permanent impairment that does not result from the covered injury, and no claimant can be assessed above 100%.
The method is fixed. ACC has confirmed that assessors "are required to use the American Medical Association's Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, Fourth Edition (AMA4) and The ACC User Handbook to AMA4 to assess impairment related to a client's covered injuries" (ACC, Official Information Act response GOV-017208, 1 April 2022, retrieved 19 August 2026).
What that measures is narrower than most applicants expect, and ACC now says so on the page itself: "Impairment means you've lost some use of a part of your body. This is not the same as disability, which is about activities you can't do anymore. It also doesn't cover other challenges like not being able to work, feeling pain, or dealing with emotional upset" (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026).
Read that against the scale. The lump sum is not compensation for lost income, for pain, or for a career that ended. Lost income is what weekly compensation is for, and it stops for its own reasons, set out in when ACC payments stop.
Two procedural points. You can apply again if the injury worsens, once every twelve months. And any previous lump sum is deducted from a later assessment, adjusted for indexation (Schedule 1, clause 60, retrieved 19 August 2026), so a reassessment pays the difference rather than the whole amount again.
Lump sum or independence allowance: the 1 April 2002 line
If the injury happened before 1 April 2002 there is no lump sum at all. The Act says so directly: "there is no entitlement to lump sum compensation in respect of personal injury suffered before 1 April 2002" (Schedule 1, clause 54(2), retrieved 19 August 2026).
Those injuries sit under the independence allowance instead, preserved by the transitional provisions in section 377 for injuries before 1 July 1999 and section 378 for injuries between 1 July 1999 and 31 March 2002 (retrieved 19 August 2026). It is a fundamentally different instrument: an ongoing payment rather than a one-off.
| Lump sum compensation | Independence allowance | |
|---|---|---|
| Applies to injuries | On or after 1 April 2002 | Before 1 April 2002 |
| Threshold | 10% whole-person impairment | 10% whole-person impairment |
| Form of payment | One-off | Ongoing, four payments a year |
| Payment frequency | Single payment | Calculated weekly, paid quarterly in advance |
| Duration | Not applicable | No maximum duration; continues while the impairment continues |
| Tax | Tax-free | Tax-free |
Lump sum details from ACC and Schedule 1, Part 3 of the Act; independence allowance mechanics from ACC's Independence Allowance Payments Policy, released under the Official Information Act (GOV-017208, 1 April 2022, retrieved 19 August 2026), which states allowances are "calculated on a weekly basis" and "paid quarterly in advance (13-weekly)" and that "there is no maximum duration for which a client can be eligible".
ACC does not currently publish the independence allowance rate scale on its website the way it publishes the lump sum scale. The most recent published version we can find is the table released under the same Official Information Act response, effective 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021, which set 10% impairment at $15.83 a week or $205.79 a quarter, and 80% at $94.97 a week or $1,234.61 a quarter. Those figures are six years old and have been indexed since, so treat them as the shape of the scale rather than the current amount.
A small number of people can elect between the two. Where a person qualifies under both regimes, ACC must set out the amounts of each and the person elects which to receive (Schedule 1, clause 55A, retrieved 19 August 2026).
Why the published amounts change every year
The Act names two numbers and then tells ACC to move them. The minimum lump sum is stated as $2,500 at 10% impairment and the maximum as $100,000 at 80% or more, and both "must be adjusted in the manner provided in section 116" (Schedule 1, clause 56, retrieved 19 August 2026). Twenty-four years of that adjustment is the difference between the Act's numbers and the ones ACC publishes today.
The 2002 figure is the amount stated in Schedule 1, clause 56(3) of the Act. The 2014/15 and 2019/20 figures are from ACC's historical lump sum payment rates released under the Official Information Act (retrieved 19 August 2026). The 2026/27 figure is ACC's current published table.
| Period | Payment at 10% impairment | Payment at 80% or more | Index, 2002 = 100 |
|---|---|---|---|
| As enacted, 2002 | $2,500.00 | $100,000.00 | 100.0 |
| 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015 | $3,294.65 | $131,785.95 | 131.8 |
| 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020 | $3,506.38 | $140,255.05 | 140.3 |
| 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 | $4,575.78 | $183,030.60 | 183.0 |
The index column is QuoteHub arithmetic. Note that it is identical for both bands, because the whole scale is adjusted by one factor: from 1 July 2026 ACC increased non-taxable entitlements, which includes lump sums and the independence allowance, by 3.08% (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026).
What we could not verify, and what to distrust
ACC does not publish the current independence allowance rates on its public website, so the weekly and quarterly figures above are the last published set and are six years old. We have not published an estimate of what they are now.
We also found no published ACC figure for the average lump sum paid, the number of applications made, or the number declined, so this page contains none. Anyone quoting a "typical ACC lump sum" is not quoting ACC.
There is a small wording difference worth flagging. ACC's own Lump Sum Eligibility Criteria Policy (retrieved 19 August 2026) states the requirement as "a whole person impairment rating of over 10%", while the Act sets the test as "10% or more" (Schedule 1, clause 54(1)(c)) and ACC's published payment table starts at 10%. If you are assessed at exactly 10%, the Act and the payment table are the documents to point at.
Finally, the amounts on this page apply to the year to 30 June 2027 and will change on 1 July 2027.
Who this changes the answer for
Anyone treating the lump sum as compensation for a career, because it is not. At 30% whole-person impairment, a genuinely serious permanent injury, the payment is $22,042.38, once. That is roughly nine weeks of the maximum weekly compensation rate, and weekly compensation is itself capped and ends for its own reasons.
Private cover is built to a different trigger. Trauma cover pays on the diagnosis of a listed condition rather than on an impairment percentage, and total and permanent disability cover pays on an inability to work rather than on a body-part rating. Neither asks whether the cause was an accident, which is the structural gap set out in our comparison of ACC and private insurance. What counts as a claim differs sharply between insurers: our guide to trauma insurance definitions goes through the wording.
If you want to know what your own household would actually receive from each source, start a comparison and an adviser will work it through with you.
References
- ACC, Financial support for a permanent injury (page last published 22 July 2026, retrieved 19 August 2026): the full lump sum table for 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, the AMA-based whole person assessment, the application and reassessment process
- ACC, Official Information Act response GOV-017208 (PDF) (1 April 2022, retrieved 19 August 2026): AMA4 and the ACC User Handbook, the Independence Allowance Payments Policy, historical lump sum rates and the 2020/21 independence allowance scale
- ACC, Changes to ACC client payments from 1 July 2026 (retrieved 19 August 2026): the 3.08% increase to non-taxable entitlements
- Accident Compensation Act 2001, Schedule 1, clause 54 (retrieved 19 August 2026): the 10% threshold, the 28-day survival rule and the 1 April 2002 cut-off
- Accident Compensation Act 2001, Schedule 1, clause 56 (retrieved 19 August 2026): the $2,500 minimum, the $100,000 maximum and indexation under section 116
- Accident Compensation Act 2001, Schedule 1, clauses 59 and 60 (retrieved 19 August 2026): the assessment, the exclusion of non-covered impairment and the deduction of earlier lump sums
- Accident Compensation Act 2001, Schedule 1, clause 55A (retrieved 19 August 2026): election between lump sum and independence allowance
- Accident Compensation Act 2001, sections 377 and 378 (retrieved 19 August 2026): the transitional independence allowance regimes
- Accident Compensation Act 2001, section 326 (retrieved 19 August 2026): the regulation-making power behind the exponential scale
Disclaimer: This article is general information only and does not constitute personalised financial advice, nor legal advice about an ACC claim. ACC amounts are stated with the period they apply to and are adjusted annually; check acc.co.nz for the current table before relying on them. Figures described as QuoteHub arithmetic are our own workings on published amounts. QuoteHub is operated by Craig Smith Business Services Limited, trading as Smiths Insurance and KiwiSaver, a licensed Financial Advice Provider (FSP712931), Christchurch.
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