How Long Does ACC Cover Last? The Published Duration Data
There is no maximum duration for ACC weekly compensation. The Accident Compensation Act 2001 makes it payable "for any period of incapacity, after that first week, resulting from the personal injury for which he or she has cover" (Schedule 1, clause 32, retrieved 19 August 2026). No week count, no benefit period, no end date.
What ends in practice is a different question, and ACC publishes the answer. In its provisional 2025/26 year-end results, 36.6% of clients had returned to work or independence within 28 days, 62.2% within ten weeks, 89.7% within nine months and 92.2% within one year (ACC, *Turnaround Plan Monthly Report, June 2026*, retrieved 19 August 2026). At the same date, 24,454 people had been receiving income maintenance payments for more than a year.
This page charts the duration curve, shows what a decade has done to it, and sets out which legal doors actually close a long claim. The mechanics of a payment stopping, including the notice you get, are covered separately in when ACC payments stop.
How long does an ACC claim actually last?
Most claims are short. The curve is steep at the start and almost flat after nine months, which means the population left on weekly compensation at the one-year mark is a group whose claims will mostly run much longer than a year.
Provisional 2025/26 year-end results, as published by ACC in its Turnaround Plan Monthly Report for June 2026 (retrieved 19 August 2026). ACC states these numbers are provisional and subject to audit; the Board approves final 2025/26 results in September 2026.
| Time since the claim started | Returned to work or independence | Still being paid |
|---|---|---|
| 28 days | 36.6% | 63.4% |
| 10 weeks (70 days) | 62.2% | 37.8% |
| 9 months (273 days) | 89.7% | 10.3% |
| 1 year (365 days) | 92.2% | 7.8% |
ACC's published measures, with the right-hand column being the arithmetic complement. ACC's 2026 targets for the same four measures were 37%, 63%, 91% and 92%, of which the 28-day and one-year measures were recorded as achieved and the other two were not.
The last column is the one to sit with. Roughly one in thirteen people who go onto weekly compensation is still on it a year later. That is not a rounding error, and for that group the question stops being "how long does ACC last" and becomes "what will end it".
Are ACC claims getting longer?
Yes, steadily, for a decade. ACC's long-term claims pool, which it defines as clients who have received weekly compensation for more than 365 days, doubled between 2015/16 and 2024/25.
Long-term claims pool and return-to-work rates as published in ACC's Turnaround Plan proactive release, Appendix 1: historic performance (Board paper dated 27 November 2025, released 4 May 2026, retrieved 19 August 2026).
| Year | Long-term claims pool | Returned within 10 weeks | Returned within 365 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015/16 | 12,269 | 66.6% | 94.9% |
| 2017/18 | 13,317 | 66.3% | 95.0% |
| 2019/20 | 15,971 | 63.4% | 93.5% |
| 2021/22 | 18,959 | 62.5% | 92.4% |
| 2023/24 | 22,593 | 60.4% | 91.3% |
| 2024/25 | 24,549 | 59.8% | 90.8% |
Selected years from ACC's ten-year series. Every intervening year is in the source document and the trend is monotonic in the pool size.
Two readings. The ten-week rate fell 6.8 percentage points over the decade, from 66.6% to 59.8%, so more people are still on compensation at the ten-week mark than were a decade ago. And the pool of claims past a year doubled. ACC's own board paper attributes part of this to a rising conversion rate: 3.7% of registered claims turned into weekly compensation claims in 2015/16 against 5.1% in 2024/25.
What actually ends a long ACC claim?
This is where the received wisdom is wrong. Vocational independence, the assessment people are most afraid of, is the smallest exit door ACC has.
ACC's board paper sets out the exits from the long-term claims pool by legislative pathway for the twelve months to 31 October 2025.
| Exit pathway | Exits in the 12 months to 31 October 2025 |
|---|---|
| Section 117(1) and (3), causal link and rehabilitation compliance | 1,994 |
| Turning 65 | 1,354 |
| Section 103, review of incapacity for the usual job | 410 |
| Alternative employment and vocational independence | 260 |
Reproduced from ACC's Turnaround Plan proactive release (retrieved 19 August 2026). ACC describes its ability to increase exits at scale as "constrained by the limited legislative pathways available".
Read the top and bottom rows together. A long-term claim is roughly eight times more likely to end because ACC decides the current need for support is not causally linked to the covered injury, or that the client is not complying with rehabilitation, than because a vocational independence assessment found capacity for 30 hours of suitable work. And more claims end simply by the client reaching 65 than by any assessment of their work capacity at all.
That age rule is worth stating precisely, because it is the one genuine hard stop in the scheme. If you first became entitled to weekly compensation 24 months or more before reaching New Zealand Superannuation qualification age, you lose entitlement on reaching that age. If you first became entitled less than 24 months before that age, or after it, you get 24 months from the date of entitlement and no more (Accident Compensation Act 2001, Schedule 1, clause 52, retrieved 19 August 2026).
Where a vocational independence determination is made, weekly compensation ceases three months after the notification (ACC, *Vocational Rehabilitation Services Operational Guidelines*, May 2026, retrieved 19 August 2026). The process, the two assessments and the review rights are set out in when ACC payments stop.
The honest limits on these numbers
Four, and they all matter.
The return-to-work measures are not what the name suggests. ACC defines them as clients who "return to work or independence", and a client "is considered to have returned to work five weeks after the cessation of weekly compensation payments" (ACC, *Service Agreement 2025/26*, retrieved 19 August 2026). Payments stopping is the measured event. Whether the person is earning what they earned before is not measured at all. ACC's 2026/27 definitions add a further scope limit: the measures exclude claims managed by an Accredited Employer unless they have been handed back to ACC (ACC, *Service Agreement 2026/27*, retrieved 19 August 2026).
The 2025/26 figures are provisional. ACC labels the June 2026 report as provisional and subject to audit, with final results approved in September 2026.
ACC publishes no median claim duration. Its "average weekly compensation days paid" measure, 74.7 days in 2024/25, is explicitly defined as the average for clients returning to work with fewer than 365 days paid (ACC Annual Report 2025, retrieved 19 August 2026). It excludes every long claim, so it is not the average duration of an ACC claim and should never be quoted as one.
And the exit pathway figures cover the long-term pool for one twelve-month window. They are not the reasons short claims end, which is usually a medical certificate expiring or a return to the same job.
Who this changes the answer for
Anyone whose plan is "ACC will cover me". For nine people in ten it will, for a matter of weeks. For the tenth it may run for years, at a capped 80% of pre-injury earnings, with the payment ending on a birthday rather than on a recovery. And none of it applies at all if what stops you working is an illness, since ACC covers personal injury rather than sickness, which is the subject of our ACC gap explainer.
Private income protection works to the opposite structure. Its duration is a contract term you choose, a two-year benefit period or cover to age 65 or 70, and it responds to illness as well as injury. The trade is that you choose and pay for the length, where ACC's length is decided by assessment. Our comparison of ACC and private cover sets the two side by side.
If you want your own position worked out rather than the averages, start a comparison and an adviser will go through it with you.
References
- ACC, Turnaround Plan Monthly Report, June 2026 (PDF) (retrieved 19 August 2026): provisional 2025/26 return-to-work rates of 36.6%, 62.2%, 89.7% and 92.2%, long-term claims pool of 24,454 and growth of −0.4%
- ACC, Turnaround Plan key documents proactive release (PDF) (Board paper 27 November 2025, released 4 May 2026, retrieved 19 August 2026): ten-year historic performance appendix and the exit pathway counts
- ACC, Service Agreement 2025/26 (PDF) (retrieved 19 August 2026): definitions of the return-to-work measures, including the five-week rule
- ACC, Service Agreement 2026/27 (PDF) (retrieved 19 August 2026): restated measure definitions, including the Accredited Employer exclusion
- ACC, Annual Report 2025 (PDF) (year ended 30 June 2025, retrieved 19 August 2026): long-term claims pool definition and average weekly compensation days paid
- ACC, Vocational Rehabilitation Services Operational Guidelines, May 2026 (PDF) (retrieved 19 August 2026): the two vocational independence assessments and the three-month cessation
- Accident Compensation Act 2001, Schedule 1, clause 32 (retrieved 19 August 2026): entitlement for any period of incapacity, with no maximum stated
- Accident Compensation Act 2001, Schedule 1, clause 52 (retrieved 19 August 2026): the New Zealand Superannuation age rule and the 24-month entitlement
Disclaimer: This article is general information about how the accident compensation scheme operates. It is not personalised financial advice and it is not legal advice about your claim. ACC's 2025/26 figures are provisional until its Annual Report is approved. Your entitlement depends on your own circumstances, your cover decision and your medical evidence. 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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