ACC issues for Self Employed or non PAYE Shareholder Employees

What ACC Covers

The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) provides comprehensive, no fault personal injury cover for all New Zealand residents and visitors to New Zealand.

Their role is to:

• Prevent injury
• Make sure people can get treatment for injury, if it happens
• Help people get back to everyday life as soon as possible.

What ACC is unable to cover

ACC does not cover you for:

• Illness or disability as a result of an illness (eg a stroke or heart attack)
• Stress (unless related to sexual abuse, personal injury or traumatic event at work)
• Ageing process
• Injury to teeth arising from their natural use
• Hernia by coughing or sneezing
• Injuries that come on gradually and are not due to a work task (non-occupational gradual process injuries).

What does this mean for you?

If you have an accident and are self-employed or you are a non PAYE shareholder: If your business has run at a loss you may not qualify for weekly compensation and ACC will only cover medical costs. This could leave you, your family, your assets and your business at risk if you are unable to cover the costs of replacement labour or continuing business expenses.

If you are ill: ACC will not cover any medical costs or provide you with any income during your period of disability. This could put you, your family, your livelihood and your business at risk if you are unable to meet your regular outgoings or business expenses. Your recovery could also be impacted if you are unable to afford private medical care or specialist tests and are required to wait for treatment.

How to reduce your ACC levies – and afford Complete Protection

Our business plans include an analysis of your ACC Levies. If you are Self Employed or a non PAYE Shareholder Employee, you do have options. Although ACC is compulsory they have an alternative product that can be more suitable for the self-employed.

You can choose the level of weekly compensation you would like to receive and at claim time you have the certainty of knowing how much you would receive from ACC, without having to prove a loss.

The aim is to have you in a contract which covers you for illness and injury and if this is possible them we can use some of the funding you currently put into ACC levies to help fund complete cover. This means you can choose not to solely rely on cover from ACC and thereby save (potentially thousands) on your levies (the higher the income, the higher the savings). This saving goes a long way to covering the cost of full Income Protection so that you and your family can be fully protected! Why pay twice if you don’t need to?

Here’s what a happy client has said