ACC news
ACC decisions reach almost every New Zealand household: levy rates, maximum and minimum weekly compensation, and the boundary between what ACC covers and what it never will. The accident scheme’s figures change on two separate dates each year, levies on 1 April, the compensation maximum on 1 July, and these stories track both, sourced to ACC’s own publications.
New Zealand acc news from QuoteHub, with the source document behind every story. 9 stories.
- The State Pays Three Times More Toward A Funeral If The Death Was An Accident, ACC, 2026-09-09. ACC pays a funeral grant of up to $8,236.40 with no means test. For a death from illness, the only grant is Work and Income's $2,697.43, and it is tested against the whole estate. Source: ACC, financial support after a fatal injury.
- Big bikes take a 46% ACC levy rise, and one training course claws most of it back, ACC, 2026-08-20. From 1 July 2026 the ACC levy on a petrol bike over 750cc jumps 46% to $624.93 a year, the steepest rise of any engine band. Mid-size riders pay more only because ACC redrew the bands. A Ride Forever Gold course takes 25% off the levy for two years, which covers most of the increase. Source: ACC, Motorcycle levy changes.
- ACC's new target needs 3,000 more people a year off weekly payments, ACC, 2026-07-30. Payments can stop on a decision that you are fit for suitable work, whether or not that work exists. ACC's own figures show its 2029/30 target needs about 11,000 people a year to leave long-term cover, roughly 38% more than 2024/25 managed. Source: ACC, Turnaround Plan 2026/27.
- ACC needs ten times last year's fall in people on long-term payments, ACC, 2026-07-29. ACC's long-term claims pool fell by 95 people in 2025/26. To reach the target ACC has set for June 2027, it needs a fall of at least 954. On its own year-end scorecard three of eight measures were stamped Not Achieved, and the printed numbers say five. Source: ACC, Turnaround Plan Monthly Report, June 2026.
- ACC caps self-employed cover at $125,313, and pays nothing when it is illness that stops you working, ACC, 2026-07-27. CoverPlus Extra tops out at $125,313 for 2026/27, exactly 80% of the income ACC charges levies on. That is 62.7% of a $200,000 income and 50.1% of a $250,000 one. And ACC's weekly compensation only ever follows an injury, so the illness gap applies at every income. Source: ACC, CoverPlus Extra (CPX) cover options.
- ACC is approving fewer planned operations, and the levy on your wages is set in law to rise twice more, ACC, 2026-07-08. New decision tools are lowering approval rates for operations like knee and shoulder repairs, ACC's own quarterly report says, and challenging a decision now takes 121 days. Behind it sits a $66.0 billion claims bill that inflation is adding to faster than the turnaround can cut it. Source: ACC, Quarter Three Performance Report 2025/26 (March 2026).
- ACC pays 80% of your income. Most income protection policies subtract it before paying., ACC, 2026-06-17. ACC's Injuries in New Zealand report counts more than 20 million days away from work. ACC replaces 80% of pre-injury earnings, nothing at all in the first week, and most New Zealand policy wordings offset whatever ACC pays. The uncovered fifth of ACC's own spending runs to about $714 million a year. Source: ACC, Injuries in New Zealand.
- Home injuries take more paid time off work than work and road combined, and ACC pays nothing for the first week, ACC, 2026-06-17. ACC's 2025 numbers put 6.4 million days of paid compensation on injuries at home, more than work and road injuries together. Those are the injuries with no employer-paid first week: ACC starts on day 8, at up to 80 per cent of earnings. Source: ACC, Injuries in New Zealand report acts as call to action.
- ACC raised its funeral grant faster than the weekly payment injured people live on, ACC, 2026-06-11. From 1 July 2026 ACC lifts its one-off payments 3.08% to keep pace with prices, and the weekly income payment only 1.97%. Anyone past six months on a claim now buys about 1.08% less, and no rule in the scheme ever pays that back. Source: ACC, Changes to ACC client payments from 1 July 2026.
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