ACC Payment NZ: How Much Lands, and What Day It Arrives
In ACC's own published worked example, someone who earned $1,250 a week before their injury is paid $1,000 gross, has $300 of tax and other deductions taken out, and receives $700 (ACC, *Calculating weekly compensation for employees*, published November 2025, retrieved 19 August 2026). The advertised rate is 80%. The rate that reaches the bank account in that example is 56%.
That gap is the reason this page exists. Everything else about an ACC payment, when it starts, how big it can get, what day it turns up, follows a published rule, and almost none of it is published in one place. This page puts the rules and the arithmetic together. How the earnings figure itself is worked out, which is a separate question, is covered in our guide to how ACC weekly compensation is calculated.
What ACC's published example actually pays
ACC publishes the full calculation, deductions included, in its November 2025 guide for PAYE employees. It is worth reading as five separate steps, because the number changes at every one of them.
| Step | ACC's published figure |
|---|---|
| Earnings over the four weeks before injury, before tax | $5,000 |
| Average weekly earnings | $1,250 |
| ACC pays 80% | $1,000 |
| Tax and deductions, for example student loan, KiwiSaver or child support | $300 |
| Weekly payment received | $700 |
Reproduced from ACC's guide to calculating weekly compensation for employees (published November 2025, retrieved 19 August 2026). ACC states the examples are for guidance and that actual payments depend on your situation.
Two things about that $300. It is not pure PAYE. ACC lists student loan, KiwiSaver and child support in the same line, so the deduction in this example is a stack, not a tax rate, and yours will differ. But the direction is fixed: weekly compensation is taxable income, and ACC deducts before it pays. The 80% you read about everywhere is a gross figure, and no published ACC page presents the net one except this guide.
How much does ACC pay at different incomes?
The 80% rate is bounded at both ends. From 1 July 2026 the gross maximum is $2,466.20 a week (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026). From 1 April 2026 the gross minimum for a full-time earner is $766.40, which ACC states is equal to 80% of the adult minimum wage of $958.00 for a 40-hour week (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026).
Divide the ceiling by 0.8 and the point where it starts to bite is exact: pre-injury earnings of $3,082.75 a week, or $160,303 a year. Above that, every extra dollar you earned before the injury adds nothing to the payment.
Gross weekly compensation for a full-time earner, using ACC's published 80% rate, the $2,466.20 maximum effective 1 July 2026 and the $766.40 full-time minimum effective 1 April 2026. The plotted line is QuoteHub arithmetic on those three published figures, not an ACC table.
| Pre-injury earnings a year | Gross ACC payment a week | Annualised | Share of earnings replaced |
|---|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $769.23 | $39,999.96 | 80.0% |
| $80,000 | $1,230.77 | $64,000.04 | 80.0% |
| $120,000 | $1,846.15 | $95,999.80 | 80.0% |
| $160,303 | $2,466.20 | $128,242.40 | 80.0% |
| $200,000 | $2,466.20 | $128,242.40 | 64.1% |
| $250,000 | $2,466.20 | $128,242.40 | 51.3% |
| $300,000 | $2,466.20 | $128,242.40 | 42.7% |
QuoteHub calculation from ACC's published rate and limits. All figures gross, before the tax and deductions shown in the first table.
The right-hand column is the finding. ACC is an 80% scheme up to $160,303 of earnings and a fixed-dollar scheme above it. At $250,000 the replacement rate is 51.3% gross, and after deductions of the kind in ACC's own example it is materially lower again. A household on that income planning around "ACC pays 80%" is planning around a number that does not apply to it.
What does the ACC payment schedule look like?
Two published details answer most of the questions people actually have.
The first is frequency. ACC's provider quick guide states plainly: "We pay weekly compensation every week and kiritaki can select which day they'd prefer to be paid on" (ACC, *Weekly compensation and other financial support*, retrieved 19 August 2026). ACC's client guide says the same thing from the other side: "Payments are made on the payday you chose when applying for weekly compensation" (ACC, *How weekly compensation payments change*, published November 2025, retrieved 19 August 2026). It is weekly, not fortnightly, and the day is a choice you make on the application form rather than a date ACC assigns you.
The second is the start, and there are two dates in it. You become eligible seven days after the incapacity date, so entitlement runs from day 8 (ACC provider quick guide, retrieved 19 August 2026). That is the statutory position too: entitlement runs "on and from the day after the first week of incapacity ends" (Accident Compensation Act 2001, Schedule 1, clause 32, retrieved 19 August 2026).
ACC also publishes how long the first payment takes after that. Its measure "weekly compensation setup timeliness", defined as "the average calendar days from a claim being eligible for weekly compensation until the first weekly compensation payment is made", read 8.7 days for 2024/25 and 8.7 days at March 2026, against a target of under 9 days (ACC, Service Agreement 2026/27, Table 8, retrieved 19 August 2026). Seven days to eligibility plus 8.7 days to the first payment puts the money in the account a little over two weeks after the injury, on average, and it covers the period from when you became eligible rather than from the day you applied.
Then the rate changes once, at week five.
| Period | What is paid | Which earnings set the rate |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1 to 7 | No ACC payment. If the injury happened at work, your employer pays 80% for that week | Not applicable |
| Day 8 to the end of week 4 of payment | Short-term rate, paid weekly on your chosen payday | Your earnings in the four weeks before the injury |
| Week 5 onward | Long-term rate, paid weekly on your chosen payday | Permanent employees: income from the current PAYE job divided by weeks worked, up to 52. Non-permanent employees: income from all non-permanent PAYE jobs divided by 52 |
Sourced from ACC's guide to calculating weekly compensation for employees and its guide to how payments change, both published November 2025 (retrieved 19 August 2026), and Schedule 1, clause 32 of the Accident Compensation Act 2001.
The week five recalculation is the one that surprises people. It is not a review of your recovery. It is a change of formula, and for anyone whose last four weeks before the injury were unusually good or unusually thin, the payment moves.
What changes the payment after it starts
Three things, all published, none of them discretionary.
Earnings you receive while on compensation are abated. ACC must reduce the payment so that compensation plus earnings does not exceed your pre-injury weekly earnings (Schedule 1, clause 51(2), retrieved 19 August 2026). ACC's worked example: pre-injury earnings $1,250, ACC pays $1,000, you return part-time and earn $500, ACC reduces its payment by $250 to $750, and your total is back at $1,250 (ACC guide, retrieved 19 August 2026). ACC's list of what counts is wider than most people assume: usual pay, bonuses, holiday pay, director's fees and final pay.
The rate is indexed once a year, but not by one number. From 1 July 2026 clients who had been receiving weekly compensation for more than 26 weeks had their payments increased by 1.97%, while non-taxable entitlements such as lump sums and the independence allowance rose by 3.08% (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026). Weekly compensation and the lump sums are indexed under different sections of the Act, section 115 and section 116 respectively, and they do not move together.
And the payment stops for a defined set of reasons, none of which is "you still feel unwell". Those are set out in our guide to when ACC payments stop.
The honest limits on the figures above
The $700 is ACC's example, not a benchmark. ACC states the examples are for guidance and that actual payments depend on your situation. The $300 deduction bundles PAYE with student loan, KiwiSaver and child support, so a person with none of those will keep more, and a person with all of them may keep less.
The chart is arithmetic, not an ACC table. ACC publishes the 80% rate, the ceiling and the floor separately and does not publish a payment-by-income schedule. The line above is those three published numbers combined, on the simplifying assumption of a steady full-time earner with one job. Multiple jobs, non-permanent employment, recent self-employment and the first four weeks of a claim all follow different rules, which are set out in how ACC weekly compensation is calculated.
The floor applies to full-time earners. The $766.40 minimum reaches you through a deeming rule: the Act treats a low-earning full-time worker as having had minimum weekly earnings, rather than topping the payment up directly (Schedule 1, clause 42, retrieved 19 August 2026). Part-time earners are not deemed up to it.
And every figure here is dated. The ceiling changes on 1 July, the minimum on 1 April, and both are reviewed annually.
Who this changes the answer for
Anyone earning over about $160,000, because the scheme stops scaling with them. Anyone whose household budget is built on a full pay packet, because a fifth is removed before deductions and the first week is not paid at all unless the injury happened at work. And anyone who is off work for something that is not an accident, because none of this applies to them: ACC covers personal injury, not illness, which is the subject of our ACC gap explainer.
The useful exercise is small. Take your gross weekly earnings, apply 80%, cap it at $2,466.20, then subtract the deductions that come off your normal pay. Hold that number against your mortgage, rates and insurance. Where there is a gap, income protection is the cover designed to sit on top of ACC and to respond to illness as well as injury.
If you want that comparison done properly, start a comparison and an adviser will work through it with you.
References
- ACC, Calculating weekly compensation for employees (PDF), published November 2025 (retrieved 19 August 2026): the $5,000 / $1,250 / $1,000 / $300 / $700 worked example and the abatement example
- ACC, How weekly compensation payments change (PDF), published November 2025 (retrieved 19 August 2026): payments made on the payday you chose, short-term and long-term rates
- ACC, Weekly compensation and other financial support, provider quick guide (PDF) (retrieved 19 August 2026): paid every week, client chooses the day, eligibility seven days after the incapacity date
- ACC, Service Agreement 2026/27 (PDF) (retrieved 19 August 2026): weekly compensation setup timeliness of 8.7 days and its glossary definition
- ACC, Changes to ACC client payments from 1 July 2026 (retrieved 19 August 2026): $2,466.20 gross maximum, 1.97% and 3.08% adjustments
- ACC, Changes to client payments from 1 April 2026 (retrieved 19 August 2026): $766.40 gross minimum, 80% of the $958.00 adult minimum wage for a 40-hour week
- Accident Compensation Act 2001, Schedule 1, clause 32 (retrieved 19 August 2026): 80% of weekly earnings, payable from the day after the first week of incapacity ends
- Accident Compensation Act 2001, Schedule 1, clause 42 and clause 46 (retrieved 19 August 2026): minimum weekly earnings for full-time earners, and the maximum weekly compensation that section 115 indexes
- Accident Compensation Act 2001, Schedule 1, clause 51 (retrieved 19 August 2026): abatement
- Accident Compensation Act 2001, sections 115 and 116 (retrieved 19 August 2026): the two separate indexation regimes
Disclaimer: This article is general information only and does not constitute personalised financial advice. ACC figures are stated with their effective dates and are reviewed annually, so check acc.co.nz for current rates before relying on them. Calculations described as QuoteHub arithmetic are our own workings on ACC's published rates and are not ACC figures. 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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