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Accident Compensation Act 2001

Preliminary provisions

3: Purpose

You could also call this:

“This law explains the main goals of helping people who get hurt”

This law explains the main goals of the Accident Compensation Act 2001. The Act aims to make New Zealand a better place by creating a fair system to help people who get hurt. Here’s what it wants to do:

The Act wants to reduce the number of accidents that happen and lessen how much these accidents affect people and the community. It does this in several ways:

One of the main jobs of the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) is to find ways to reduce how often people get hurt and how badly they get hurt.

The Act sets up a system to collect and study information about injuries. This helps understand why accidents happen and how to prevent them.

The ACC needs to make sure that Māori and other groups of people can easily use its services. This means checking if these groups are getting the help they need.

When someone does get hurt, the main focus is on helping them get better. The goal is to help injured people have a good quality of life by giving them the support they need to get healthy, be independent, and take part in daily activities.

While people are getting better, the Act makes sure they receive fair compensation for their injuries. This includes weekly payments and sometimes a lump sum of money for permanent injuries.

The Act creates rules called the Code of ACC Claimants’ Rights to make sure people have good experiences when dealing with ACC.

Lastly, the Act makes sure that people who were injured before this law came into effect can still get help if they need it.

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This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM100100.

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"When different parts of the law start working"

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4: Overview, or

"This Act explains how accident compensation works in New Zealand"

Part 1 Preliminary provisions

3Purpose

  1. The purpose of this Act is to enhance the public good and reinforce the social contract represented by the first accident compensation scheme by providing for a fair and sustainable scheme for managing personal injury that has, as its overriding goals, minimising both the overall incidence of injury in the community, and the impact of injury on the community (including economic, social, and personal costs), through—

  2. establishing as a primary function of the Corporation the promotion of measures to reduce the incidence and severity of personal injury:
    1. providing for a framework for the collection, co-ordination, and analysis of injury-related information:
      1. ensuring that the Corporation monitors access to the accident compensation scheme by Māori and identified population groups in order to deliver services under this Act in a manner that supports access to the scheme by injured Māori and injured persons in those population groups:
        1. ensuring that, where injuries occur, the Corporation's primary focus should be on rehabilitation with the goal of achieving an appropriate quality of life through the provision of entitlements that restores to the maximum practicable extent a claimant's health, independence, and participation:
          1. ensuring that, during their rehabilitation, claimants receive fair compensation for loss from injury, including fair determination of weekly compensation and, where appropriate, lump sums for permanent impairment:
            1. ensuring positive claimant interactions with the Corporation through the development and operation of a Code of ACC Claimants' Rights:
              1. ensuring that persons who suffered personal injuries before the commencement of this Act continue to receive entitlements where appropriate.

                Notes
                • Section 3(ba): inserted, on , by section 4 of the Accident Compensation (Access Reporting and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2023 (2023 No 26).