Call for manual review of EQC claims

EQC staff should manually go through all 2600 remaining Canterbury earthquake claims in a bid to finally settle them, seven years after the quakes, an independent report has recommended.

EQC should also hire more staff to deal with the claims, said the report, by independent adviser Christine Stevenson.

Stevenson, acting chief executive of Customs and a former Corrections deputy chief executive, was enlisted by EQC Minister Megan Woods in February to look at ways the EQC process for Canterbury people could be sped up.

“There is a high personal and financial toll on a number of Canterbury residents with open claims. Some of these claimants have described the mental health and stress-related issues that they and their families are suffering from as a result of the prolonged claims process and the uncertain outcome,” Stevenson said in the report, released yesterday.

Woods said the report revealed issues with staffing levels, data quality, record-keeping and organisational culture and structure.

“I have asked Dame Annette King, the interim board chair, to consider these recommendations right away and to swiftly implement appropriate measures,” she said.

The report recommended a team of experienced EQC staff should pull out all the physical files relating to remaining claims and go through them to ensure key data was correct. Other recommendations included: Hiring more staff to reduce the case loads for case managers so claimants can get more personal attention

Establishing a claimant reference group made up of claimants and community representative advocates to advise EQC on how to improve the treatment of their customers

Making claimants’ EQC files available to them on request and introducing a standard for better communication with claimants

Increasing Government monitoring to improve accountability.

Broader recommendations included allowing EQC more flexibility to make cash settlements above the EQC cap, which would then be recovered from the private insurers; and scaling up the Residential Advisory Service which provides independent help to claimants.

The Insurance Council said it supported EQC reviewing and confirm claims data and making it more transparent.