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Accident Compensation Act 2001

Code of ACC Claimants' Rights, and claims - Claims process

53: Time for making claim

You could also call this:

“When you need to tell ACC about your injury or ask for help”

You need to make a claim to the Corporation within a certain time. If you make a claim late, they can still accept it unless the delay makes it hard for them to make decisions.

For most claims, you have 12 months to make them. If you’re claiming for cover, you have 12 months from when you got hurt. If you’re claiming for an entitlement, you have 12 months from when you needed that entitlement.

If your claim is about a treatment injury, the rules are a bit different. For cover, you have 12 months from either when a health professional first thought it was a treatment injury, or from when you actually got the injury - whichever is later. For an entitlement related to a treatment injury, you have 12 months from when you needed the entitlement, or from when the Corporation accepted your claim for cover if that happened after you needed the entitlement.

Remember, a treatment injury is a special kind of injury that happens when you’re getting healthcare. The Corporation has specific rules about when they consider a treatment injury to have happened.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM100979.

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Part 3 Code of ACC Claimants' Rights, and claims
Claims process

53Time for making claim

  1. A person must lodge a claim with the Corporation within the time limit specified in this section.

  2. The Corporation must not decline a claim lodged after the time limit specified in this section on the ground that the claim was lodged late, unless the claim's lateness prejudices the Corporation in its ability to make decisions.

  3. A person must lodge a claim under section 48,—

  4. in the case of a claim for cover, within 12 months after the date on which he or she suffers the personal injury; or
    1. in the case of a claim for an entitlement, within 12 months after the date on which the need for the entitlement arose.

      1. Despite subsection (3), if a claim is for a treatment injury, a person must lodge the claim under section 48,—

      2. in the case of a claim for cover, within 12 months after the later of—
        1. the date that the personal injury was first considered by a registered health professional to be a treatment injury; or
          1. the date that the person suffered the treatment injury (as determined under section 38):
          2. in the case of a claim for an entitlement, within 12 months after the later of—
            1. the date on which the need for the entitlement arose; or
              1. if the need for entitlement arose before the injury was diagnosed as being a treatment injury, and a claim for cover for that injury has been lodged with the Corporation, the date on which the Corporation accepted the claim for cover.

              Notes
              • Section 53(4): added, on , by section 16 of the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Amendment Act (No 2) 2005 (2005 No 45).