Victim may get belated help
Hisham Al Zarzour will never be able to work a physical job again after being injured in the Christchurch mosque attack, yet has never received any wage compensation.
After escaping the Syrian war and arriving as a refugee with his young family in July 2018, Al Zarzour spent a few months learning English before gaining a casual contract plastering for a building company.
He declared his income while receiving a job seeker’s benefit, paid taxes, and did what he could to learn the trade and secure permanent work, but has received no ACC wage compensation after being shot in the left hip while praying at Masjid An Nur (Al Noor mosque).
ACC could not provide information on the number of March 15 victims who had been turned down for wage compensation, but The Press has been told of at least five injured, some mentally unable to work, and multiple families of those killed who receive none.
An ACC spokeswoman said Al Zarzour said he was receiving a benefit and did not request weekly compensation ‘‘or let us know he was earning’’, so weekly compensation was not considered.
‘‘It has only recently come to our attention that he was working at the time he was injured, and we are now looking into what . . . he may be entitled to.’’
If accepted, this would be backdated, she said.
Al Zarzour said he frequently told ACC he had been a casual worker, and was told that made him ineligible for wage compensation.
‘‘I was casual because I was new in New Zealand.’’
Despite ACC covering the bulk of his medical bills, he got nothing for his lost earnings, and he knew of about three others in the same situation, he said.
He questioned why government agencies were not able to communicate with each other to assess what compensation he was eligible for – especially since he was new to the country.
He informed the Ministry of Social Development every week how many hours he had worked so it could adjust his benefit accordingly, and was given payslips from his employer showing his tax payments.
‘‘[ACC] said they could get it from IRD, but they never did.’’
Al Zarzour also broke his hand when he fell during the attack, but the break was only discovered 18 months later, despite his constant pain. The delay in treatment caused permanent damage that a specialist was trying to fix. He was now no longer able to work a physical job.
He, his wife, and their four children were living off the job seeker’s benefit, or income he gained as an Uber driver.
The minister in charge of the response to the attack, Andrew Little, rejected calls for government compensation for those affected by the shooting, saying reparation came in the form of ACC payments and other agency support.
Al Zarzour disputed Little’s comments. ‘‘You didn’t support all of them. From the first day after March 15 I didn’t receive any payment from ACC.’’