Gender contrasts in ACC claims

ACC is paying out much more to men than to women.

Huge disparities in the number of claims for sports and work-related injuries and motor vehicle accidents meant only about 37 per cent of ACC payouts went to women last year, with 63 per cent going to men.

Women were also more likely to have many types of claims rejected.

The proportion of payouts women receive has risen, but only slightly, up from 35 per cent five years ago.

Former prime minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer, QC, last month called for a radical expansion of ACC to cover people incapacitated by sickness and disability.

Dunedin barrister and ACC lobbyist Warren Forster labelled the present system ‘‘sexist’’, because it covered only injuries and not health problems common in femaledominant professions such as aged care and education.

A reader poll indicated some support for change, with 64 per cent of

6600 votes cast in favour of extending ACC to sickness and disability, and

30 per cent against.

ACC Minister Iain Lees-Galloway said it would be unfair to describe ACC as a system designed by and for men.

‘‘Sir Geoffrey raises an interesting point and I have said I would welcome the public’s response to this,’’ he said. ‘‘However, so far the evidence I have to gauge this response is the poll and the sum total of three emails received on this issue. So I do not believe that we have had a sufficient public response yet.’’

ACC paid out $462 million to men and $170m to women for sport-related claims in the year to the end of June.

The data showed the number of sports-related injury claims made by women was increasing faster than for men, however, and that only about 0.5 per cent of claims from either gender were being rejected.

Motor accident payouts were more skewed, with payouts to men totalling $345m last year and $133m to women.

That was despite women lodging slightly more claims.

But the biggest gender difference was for work-related injuries, with men claiming almost three quarters of the money paid out by ACC last year.

Men successfully claimed $591m and women $154m for work-related injuries last year, due mainly to the number of claims but also their size.

ACC said males and females each had the same approval rate for sports claims (99.4 per cent), while motor vehicle claims had an approval rate of 98.7 per cent for males and 98.4 per cent for females. That meant women were almost 20 per cent more likely than men to have a vehicle-related claim turned down.

The data supplied by ACC indicated work-related claims were declined more frequently for both genders than any other type of claim, with a rejection rate of 7.6 per cent for women and 5.6 per cent for men.

ACC paid out $787m to women for all other claims last year, and $829m to men.

Palmer said he had received support from many correspondents for his call for ACC’s mandate to be widened.