Working with the ACC (LINK)
November 16th 2007 17:08
Amongst the many jobs I applied for when I was looking for work were some with the ACC, that is, the Accident Compensation Corporation. (You can see why we refer to it by its initials: try saying the full name quickly five times.)
I didn’t get any of them, and I’m glad of that, to be honest. The work with this government agency is stressful, and the turnover of staff is high. People working in the claims section of the ACC have a reputation for turning down all sorts of realistic claims, or prolonging payouts when people are in need.
This isn’t the case all the time, of course. We tend to hear about the few ACC interactions that have gone wrong, more than the many that go right.
In the States, of course, they don’t have ACC or anything like it. There you have to get a personal injury lawyer to get on the case, especially if an insurance company is being reticent about paying up. That’s how it used to be in New Zealand, and many people suffered through not having the means or experience to fight the insurance companies. Now we all pay something to the ACC each payday, and, if we have an accident, even something small like cutting your finger at work (if it needs surgical attention) or falling down a step or two, it gets treated as an ACC claim. Most of these are handled without a blink by the ACC, and it’s a great way to work.
When I read, however, about the Raleigh personal injury attorneys (that’s Raleigh in North Carolina, by the way), who have a reputation for taking cases to court, and their claim to be known as (pretty scary) dealers with insurance companies, I’m glad we in New Zealand don’t have to go down that track.
I didn’t get any of them, and I’m glad of that, to be honest. The work with this government agency is stressful, and the turnover of staff is high. People working in the claims section of the ACC have a reputation for turning down all sorts of realistic claims, or prolonging payouts when people are in need.
This isn’t the case all the time, of course. We tend to hear about the few ACC interactions that have gone wrong, more than the many that go right.
In the States, of course, they don’t have ACC or anything like it. There you have to get a personal injury lawyer to get on the case, especially if an insurance company is being reticent about paying up. That’s how it used to be in New Zealand, and many people suffered through not having the means or experience to fight the insurance companies. Now we all pay something to the ACC each payday, and, if we have an accident, even something small like cutting your finger at work (if it needs surgical attention) or falling down a step or two, it gets treated as an ACC claim. Most of these are handled without a blink by the ACC, and it’s a great way to work.
When I read, however, about the Raleigh personal injury attorneys (that’s Raleigh in North Carolina, by the way), who have a reputation for taking cases to court, and their claim to be known as (pretty scary) dealers with insurance companies, I’m glad we in New Zealand don’t have to go down that track.
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