Counselling boost tipped for sex abuse victims

An article from Radio New Zealand News

Sexual abuse victims may get more government-funded counselling, ACC Minister Nikki Kaye says.
Victims of sexual abuse are currently offered up to 44 hours of therapy and support, but must be diagnosed with what's called a mental injury to qualify for more.
ACC Minister Nikki Kaye said there was a possibility that could change.
"If they want to go through a process, potentially around weekly compensation, everybody's been, you know, working to find the best possible process around that assessment," she said.
"This is a complicated area, you know we owe it to those victims to continue to work on it and see if we can improve it."
Ms Kaye said she would meet with people in the sector to see if any adjustments were needed.

© 2016 Radio New Zealand

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/305132/counselling-boost-tipped-for-sex-abuse-victims

Being a victim is not illness

An article from the Herald on Sunday by Tess Nichol

Requirements for sexual attack survivors to be diagnosed with a mental health illness to get ongoing taxpayer funded counselling could be reviewed, ACC Minister Nikki Kaye has revealed.
Green Party MP Jan Logie will tomorrow lead a demonstration at ACC's Auckland office protesting the current process, which requires survivors receive a mental injury diagnosis before their claim for further assistance can be approved.
Up to 14 hours of one-on-one therapy is available when someone lodges a sensitive claim with ACC, along with up to 10 hours of social work support. Up to 20 hours of whanau support are also available immediately.
After these are used, ACC decides whether to approve cover for further support, should the person need it. That included victims needing to be diagnosed with a mental health injury relating to the abuse.
"We believe that survivors of sexual abuse should be able to get all the help they need without the requirement of being diagnosed with a mental illness," Logie said. "The advocates are very clear that it is still acting as a barrier, [that] the consequences are harmful and that it's unhelpful."
Logie said she had been told of survivors who had to retell painful details of their abuse to people they had not previously met so they could get the mental health diagnosis they needed to keep seeing their therapist, a process they described as traumatic and revictimising.
Kaye told the Herald on Sunday she believed the system was supportive of survivors. But the minister said she would meet providers this week to discuss possible changes to the scheme. That would include looking at different ways to assess mental harm to victims.
"I'm really keen to work with providers and opposition parties to see if there is a better way [of doing things]."
Kaye said a "mental injury diagnosis" could be provided by any ACC registered and appropriately qualified assessor, which in many cases is the client's counsellor.
"If the assessor is someone different, the client's counsellor can be with them throughout the process, including during the assessment to ensure they feel safe and supported, and can provide background information to the assessor beforehand if the client doesn't wish to speak about some things again."
Changes were made in 2009 to the way support was accessed through ACC by sexual violence survivors, bringing in the requirement for a mental injury diagnosis in order to access help. After a 2010 review of the scheme and consultation with those working in the sector, further changes were made so survivors could have immediate access to support.
Since the review, ACC has been working with providers to improve the care of sexual assault survivors, something Kaye said had been hugely successful.
"We've come a long way [since 2009]," she said. "ACC has given me feedback that a lot of providers have been quite positive about the new service. But that doesn't mean that we can't do better."

© 2016 NZME Publishing Limited

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11646773

Sexual violence services – the real story

A blog post by Jan Logie

What has really led to the Government’s changing stance on funding for sexual violence services?
People have been congratulating me on this news yesterday and I have to admit working with the sector through this process has given meaning to my time in Parliament and I am proud of the work we have done on this.  I am a bit embarrassed by the congratulations in the context of the thousands of submissions and years and years of work by incredible advocates which really got the result.
While I’ll need to see the dollars in the budget, and hear that the Government is working closely with the specialist providers, especially Nga Kaitiaki Mauri, to design the new model before I relax, I do want to reflect on the journey to this point.
The 70s and 80s saw women coming together to voluntarily support women who had experienced sexual violence. The Government provided some funding from the mid 80s. There was a period of new general services, the Pacific Island Women’s Project, and kaupapa Maori services being set up to respond to the growing need. These groups were advocating for the prevention of sexual violence – law reform and social change as well as supporting victim/survivors. It wasn’t until the mid 90s that we had the first ethnic women’s organisation, Shakti and in the late 90s the Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Trust set up. There are still obvious gaps.
ACC alongside MSD were the major funders for sexual violence support services. The services were always under-valued and certainly not recognised for the amazing life-saving and at times world leading responses to sexual violence that they were and are. Sexual violence has been one of those very difficult topics to talk about in any context so that always made the services a bit of an easy target for funding cuts.
Despite Maori women being more likely to experience sexual violence in New Zealand and kaupapa Maori approaches being far more successful we have lost almost all of our specialist kaupapa Maori sexual violence services. There was a time when there were over twenty services but now there are fewer than five.
The Taskforce for Action was initiated by Labour in the wake of public horror about Louise Nicholas’s experiences. Louise did not have access to the right help, from our justice system or social services, when she needed it and that is one of the reasons she has been so actively advocating for increased funding for years.
The Taskforce for Action came out in 2009 calling for a national prevention plan and proper resourcing of the sexual violence sectors, basically all the same things that the select committee has recommended again 6 years later.
Maori and non-Maori specialists gave hundreds of hours of their time, voluntarily, in the Taskforce for Action on Sexual Violence. They spent hours and hours strategizing and organising and lobbying to try and ensure that victim/survivors had access to the services they needed. If this had been implemented there would have been no need for the select committee inquiry.
But even while the National party Minister for Justice called the Taskforce for Action the best road map the country had ever had for addressing sexual violence, the Government was in the process of gutting ACC support for victim/survivors. The Government told ACC that they had to make savings. In 2009 they saved $3.2billion dollars by going after, amongst other things, the “low hanging fruit” of sensitive claims. These changes resulted in a 36% decline the number of claims being lodged and even more shockingly the number of accepted claims going from 60% to 3.6% in just two years. Specialist agencies stopped using ACC because they thought it was unsafe for survivors and the number of ACC counsellors halved. During the inquiry into sexual violence funding we heard from a man whose partner had killed herself because she couldn’t get the support she needed over this time.
Many therapists and counsellors and volunteers just kept going, under increasing strain themselves, because they knew that people were depending on them. This was a truly awful time in New Zealand’s history.
Public concern over these changes forced Minister Nick Smith to initiate a review in 2010.The Disley report in 2010 made fourteen recommendations to fix the mess. Considerable effort has been made since then by ACC, the community and others to try and restore ACC. In the select committee report much has been made of the improvements to ACC. A new model is in place and it is much better but we are still not there yet.
Ahead of the budget and future work, I just want to celebrate the bloody minded tenacity of survivors and advocates who have kept going through this very dismal time. I genuinely and wholeheartedly hope the Government doesn’t let us all down again.

© 1996-2015 The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand

https://blog.greens.org.nz/2016/04/01/sexual-violence-services-the-real-story/

The inadequate response to sexual violence prevention

An article from Scoop by Gordon Campbell

On combatting sexual violence, the government has finally begun to undo some of the problems that were of its own making. Early in March, ACC launched the Integrated Services for Sensitive Claims scheme – a package aimed at improving the attitudes of ACC staff towards sexual violence victims, and offering them more substantive support. Hopefully, this will help to reverse the damage done with the insensitive, punitive ACC policy put in place by the incoming Key government in 2009, which in some parts of New Zealand, saw 90 per cent of sexual violence victims being turned away by ACC.
As well as this new support scheme, ACC is also increasing its annual funding of sexual violence prevention education, from a paltry $1 million to $4 million, a figure still seen as inadequate by experienced workers in the field.
In addition, Justice Minister Amy Adams has invited the Law Commission to revisit its work on possible changes to the pre-trial and courtroom procedures faced by sexual complainants. The Police however, continue to be one of the glaring problem areas. The report by the Independent Police Conduct Authority into the Police handling of the so called “Roastbusters” group in Auckland not only disagreed with the Police rationale for not initiating a prosecution under the Crimes Act – ultimately, the Police decided that a prosecution would not be in the public interest, given the young age of some of the offenders. It was a stance that completely ignored the even younger age of some of the victims.
The IPCA also faulted (as being inadequate to non-existent) the Police contact with the young men and their families. Arguably, not only was justice for the victims ill-served by the Police decision not to prosecute, but the deterrent/prevention aspect was completely neglected. In the words of the IPCA report, the Police “overlooked the importance of holding the young men accountable for their behavior, and preventing its recurrence.”
The conspicuous failure by Police over the Roastbusters incidents came despite the findings by the 2007 Commission of Inquiry into Police conduct (that had been initiated by the complaints made by Louise Nicholas). This inquiry had revealed a culture of misogyny and aberrant behaviour rife among the Police, at high levels of the Police hierarchy. So, unless the government is prepared to put some heat on the Police over its handling of sexual violence between adolescents and adults – and the subject was conspicuously absent from the Briefing to the Incoming Minister of Police in 2014 – then the concerns about sexual violence being expressed in Parliament this week will ring hollow.
Even the possible changes to pre-trial and courtroom treatment will not address the issue of prevention. As the initial Law Commission issues paper on those proposals pointed out, the approach being assessed “ does nothing to address the attitudes that led to the offending, and it accordingly fails to reduce the risk that the behaviour will recur.” It may seem both incredible and yet somehow unsurprising that – so long as some of the next America’s Cup racing is held in Auckland - the government would spend ten times the amount on that regatta than what ACC is currently putting into sexual violence prevention education.

© 2015 Scoop Media

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1504/S00002/gordon-campbell-the-inadequate-response-to-sexual-violence.htm

Influx expected with funding for ACC sexual abuse service set to double

An article from NZ Doctor by Ruth Brown

ACC is braced for an influx of new sex abuse claimants following the launch of its more generous service for sensitive claims. The budget for this financial year is $14.6 million, to cover support assessment and treatment. This is set to almost double to $29.5 million for the 2015/16 year. In the 2013/14 year ACC spent $12.5 million on sensitive claims.
A year-on-year 10 per cent increase is conservatively estimated, says Emma Powell, strategy manager, sexual violence at ACC. Since the service began rolling out last November, an extra 1000 claims have been lodged for the service which, at any one time, is dealing with 5500–6000 claims. The main difference is the service is now fully funded so clients won’t be asked to make a copayment which previously was sometimes as high as $90 for counselling sessions, Ms Powell told New Zealand Doctor.
The Integrated Services for Sensitive Claims (ISSC) was officially launched in Wellington last night.

‘Less daunting’ assessment
Ms Powell says the assessment process for claimants has changed significantly after feedback from clients that it was “pretty daunting”. Instead of assessments being conducted by an independent party over one or two sessions, ACC now offers supported assessments which have been allocated up to 26 hours. This is allocated for support sessions interwoven with assessment sessions and a de-brief with the claimant at the end. Also, counsellors who may have conducted the original sessions are likely to be involved with the supported assessments, she says.

Not enough counsellors
Ms Powell acknowledges a lack of trained counsellors in some parts of the country.
In a previous New Zealand Doctor story, Wellington GP and deputy chair of Doctors for Sexual Abuse Care GP Cathy Stephenson said sexual abuse survivors were still facing barriers because of too few counsellors.
Ms Powell says areas such as South Canterbury, the West Coast and remote rural areas were most affected by a lack of counsellors specialising in sexual abuse. But ACC will pay for providers to travel to these areas.
“We will be working through some of those gaps fairly smartly,” she says.
ACC currently has 175 suppliers with 770 providers on its books and it’s currently assessing and processing another 110 potential providers, she says.

© 2015 MIMS (NZ) Ltd

http://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/news/2015/march-2015/03/influx-expected-with-funding-for-acc-sexual-abuse-service-set-to-double.aspx

More ACC support to help address sexual violence

A press release from the National Party

ACC Minister Nikki Kaye welcomes ACC’s new support package for people who’ve experienced sexual abuse or assault.
“It’s clear to me ACC has listened to feedback from clients, families, counsellors and others, and their input is reflected in the more flexible, wider range of support now being offered,” says Ms Kaye.
“ACC has come a long way in the last few years and I’m encouraged things are heading in the right direction.
“The new approach is not just about helping individuals but families too, who are also impacted if a loved one is sexually abused or assaulted.”
Improvements under the new service include:

• more holistic support – as well as one-to-one therapy, people can now access new support such as family and whānau sessions, social work support and liaison with other agencies to obtain assistance that can help recovery
• more hours of support for those who need it – up to around 60 hours of total short-term support, and up to around 100 hours of further support over 12 months, if required, for people with longer-term needs
• more flexible support - making it easier to enter, exit and return to assistance at any time
• new purpose-built claim form, which reflects the sensitivities of the situation.

“The new service is also fully funded by ACC. This means service providers cannot charge clients a co-payment, which will help more people access help when they need it.
“I’m pleased to confirm that on top of this, ACC will invest more in preventing sexual violence, from around $1 million to $4 million in the coming year.
“This extra support and injury prevention funding links into the wider government strategy, led by Ministers Adams and Tolley, to address sexual and family violence and encourage cultural change.
“It can be difficult sometimes for people to come forward and get help, so I encourage anyone affected by sexual violence to see what help is available.”
For more information, see the new website findsupport.co.nz.

© 2014 New Zealand National Party

https://www.national.org.nz/news/news/media-releases/detail/2015/03/02/more-acc-support-to-help-address-sexual-violence

ACC launches new recovery service for clients

A press release from ACC

ACC is formally launching its new Integrated Services for Sensitive Claims or ISSC. The service has been underway since November 2014 and provides people who have experienced sexual violence with safe and flexible access to a range of support, assessment and treatment services.
The launch is being held at Te Wharewaka, 15 Jervois Quay, Wellington and will commence at 5pm.
“The service has been significantly improved and re-designed to ensure it’s more client-centric,” says Emma Powell, Strategy Manager Sexual Violence at ACC.
“We listened, acknowledged the issues, engaged with providers, key agencies and made considerable changes based on sector and, most importantly, our clients’ advice,” Ms Powell says.
The launch is intended to raise awareness of the service and the changes that have been made.
Some of the significant differences for clients are:

• ACC is fully funding the service so clients will not be asked to provide a co-payment as in the past
• A greater focus on holistic support and treatment and tailored plans to help clients achieve their individual outcomes
• A new tailor made claim form
• Clients can access the findsupport.co.nz website for information about ISSC, sensitive claims and to find a service provider in their area
• Flexibility in treatment planning – plans can be agreed for up to 12 months.

“There is immediate support available and clients have a range of services they may access depending on their needs. For example, one-to-one counselling, family and whanau sessions, cultural support and group therapy,” Ms Powell says.
The new service has a greater focus on maintaining wellbeing. Following treatment, clients can have up to four sessions per year for up to three years pre-approved and access these directly as needed.
“ACC is committed long-term to this service and will continue to work with the sector and further grow the relationships that have been built up. ACC is committed to understanding the experience of our clients and to ensure we continue to develop the service, improve the service and get it right,” says Ms Powell.

© 2015 ACC

http://www.acc.co.nz/news/WPC137493

Question to Minister

7. JAN LOGIE (Green) to the Minister of Justice: Does she stand by her statement “we need to encourage these women and children to be comfortable coming forward to report domestic and sexual violence”; if so, what has she done to encourage women to report domestic violence?



Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Justice) :Yes; the Government has already achieved significant progress with improving the support for victims of domestic and sexual violence. As a result of the $50 offender levy, $12.6 million has been collected since July 2010. There are 15 new grants and services available to victims, including discretionary grants to support victims of sexual violence and funding for the national Sexual Violence Survivor Advocate, as well as specialist victim advisers to provide assistance for parents or caregivers who attend court to support child witnesses. As Minister of Justice I have initiated a major work stream, which is nearing completion and which will include a range of further initiatives to provide better support and access to justice for victims of domestic and sexual violence.
Jan Logie: Will women feel encouraged to report domestic violence when they see her, the Minister of Justice, defending Maurice Williamson’s interference—
Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! That question now has no connection with the primary question. I invite the member—I do not want to take supplementary questions away from her. I invite her to ask a question that is in relation to the primary question.
Hon Members: Point of order.
Mr SPEAKER: Well, I cannot take three at once. I will not take any; they have all sat down.
Jan Logie: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. My initial question was relating to encouraging women to report. My second question was whether women will feel encouraged to report, based on the leadership provided by that Minister. It was directly relevant.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! If the member simply asks that question, it will be in order, but when it is a reference to a resignation that has occurred, etc., that is not in order. So if the member wants to stand and ask the question that she has just raised in the point of order, it may well be acceptable.
Jan Logie: Will women feel encouraged to report domestic violence when they see her, the Minister of Justice, providing leadership in domestic violence, supporting a Minister’s interference in a police case?
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I gave the member one more chance. She was on the right track until the last part. I will give her only one—[Interruption] Order! I will give her one more opportunity. Otherwise, we will move to the next question.
Grant Robertson: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I would ask you to reflect on that ruling you have just made. The question from Jan Logie was a broad statement around domestic and sexual violence. She has asked a question of the Minister. I cannot understand why her referencing a matter that is in the public arena rules the question out of order.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Well, the member might not understand it, but I invite the member to look very carefully at the Standing Orders—
Grant Robertson: Which one?
Mr SPEAKER: Well, 384, if the member needs it, and I invite him to read it if he wants to. Supplementary questions are at the discretion of the Speaker. I have been very patient with the member. I will give the member her last opportunity. Otherwise, we are moving to the next question.
Jan Logie: Will women feel encouraged to report domestic violence when they see her, the Minister of Justice, providing public defence in relation to a high-profile case of domestic violence?
Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Of course I have not done that. What I have done is to say that the Prime Minister was quite right to receive the resignation of my colleague Mr Williamson in the circumstances. I have also, at the same time—
Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I apologise to the Minister.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: On three occasions you found that the original question was erroneous or outside of the Standing Orders because of a reference to a certain case. Now you find that the Minister of Justice is quite within the borders of the Standing Orders, having referred to the case that you ruled out from being referred to in the first place. Can we have some consistency here, please.
Mr SPEAKER: I would have thought the Minister’s answer was helpful to the House, but if the member is objecting to the answer, then I will curtail the answer and we will move on. Are there further supplementary questions?
Jan Logie: If tackling domestic violence is a priority, why has the Ministry of Justice funding for family and domestic violence services dropped under her Government from $8.7 million in 2010 to $7.3 million in 2013, despite an increase in family violence arrests last year?
Hon JUDITH COLLINS: These days we take much more of a cross-Government approach to the funding of domestic violence and sexual violence. In fact, I can tell the member that the Ministry of Social Development is also contributing to the funding. Also, in addition to that, another portfolio, accident compensation, has spent—I think it is, from memory—around $40 million a year on sensitive claims resulting from sexual violence.
Jan Logie: I seek leave to table a report compiled by the library showing a decrease in funding from the Government, from the Ministry of Social Development, as well as the Ministry of Justice, as well as the It’s Not OK campaign—
Mr SPEAKER: Order! It has been well described. On the basis that it is not freely available to members, I will put the leave. Leave is sought to table this library report on a funding trend. Is there any objection to it being tabled? There is none. It can be tabled.

    Document, by leave, laid on the Table of the House.

Jan Logie: How can women feel comfortable reporting domestic violence when Ministers have slashed funding for family violence and used their power to help a man charged with abuse simply—
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Again, we are right back in the same position we were earlier. I will invite the member—[Interruption] Order! I will invite the member to re-ask her question. I suggest that if she just keeps it to the first part, it will be in order.
Dr Russel Norman: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. The Minister of Justice herself introduced the Mr Williamson case. That is what the Minister did. It is now on the record. We now have a right to respond—
Mr SPEAKER: Order! A member sitting not too far from the member took objection to the Minister raising that. On that basis, I curtailed the answer. [Interruption] Order! We can move on very quickly. I have been exceedingly patient with the member. I will ask her, if she wants to ask further supplementary questions, that she does it according to the Standing Orders.
Jan Logie: How can women feel comfortable reporting domestic violence when Ministers have slashed funding for support, prevention, and treatment services, and lost their way in terms of providing political leadership on the importance of a consistent response to domestic violence?
Hon JUDITH COLLINS: I reject the allegation in the second part of that member’s question. I can say to that member that this Government is deeply committed to bringing an end to domestic and sexual violence. In fact, that member well knows and many people in this House will well know that there are people in this House whose close family members have been killed as a result of domestic violence.

http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/business/qoa/50HansQ_20140506_00000007/7-domestic-violence%E2%80%94support-for-victims

Sexual violence counselling boost

A report from Radio New Zealand News

The Government has announced a $10 million funding boost in next month's budget for specialist sexual violence services.
Social development minister Paula Bennett says the increase will provide immediate stability for specialist services to help address current funding shortfalls. Ms Bennett says the sector requires extra resourcing, especially for making 24 hour, seven-days-a-week crisis call-out and emergency counselling services available. She says the money will be used to support frontline crisis-response and community-based treatment services, as well as male victims and those accessing medical and forensic services.
A Parliamentary inquiry is currently looking into the funding of specialist sexual violence services.
Ms Bennett says she couldn't wait for the outcome of the inquiry.
"The need is so great now, to be honest I'd done a lot of work on my cabinet and to get them to this point, there was no way I was going to delay them for another six months!
"I knew I had a shot of getting a bit of money in this year's budget so I was going to grab it with everything I had."
The Parliamentary inquiry has been told the sector is severely under-resourced and has lost about $6 million a year since changes to ACC in 2011 when it cut funding for sex abuse counselling.

Funding welcome
A rape prevention trust says the Government's funding boost will help stop the loss of trained staff from the sector.
Executive director of Rape Prevention Education, Kim McGregor says the sector has been underfunded for many decades. She says there's been a high level of burnout and it's been difficult to hold on to specialist trained staff.
Ms McGregor says the extra funding will help stabilise the sector in the short-term.

© Radio New Zealand 2014

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/242981/sexual-violence-counselling-boost

Changes to ACC funding for sensitive claims

A post from FrogBlog by Jan Logie

Isaac Davidson from the Herald ran another great story today on the support services for victims of sexual abuse and ACC plans to improve coverage.
The new model will be “an expanded, more flexible service which took into account the sensitivity, length of time and cost of treating rape-related trauma based on the 2010 review recommendations.” It will cover full cost of the sessions and will allow people to shop around for a therapist who they feel comfortable with and therapists, psychologist and psychotherapists would be given travel funding to allow them to reach people in isolated regions. ACC is also planning to increasingly include family members or support people through the recovery process. There is an expectation that with increased reporting and more funding ACC were expecting the cost of sensitive claims to double from $45million per year.
Of course this is all good news but there are a few points in here that we need to watch carefully if we are to ensure that everyone gets the right help...

Read the rest of this post here: http://blog.greens.org.nz/?p=30254

© 2014 The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand

Help for rape victims under threat

An article from Stuff by Kirsty Johnston

Rape and sexual assault victims in Auckland may lose access to the city's only 24-hour helpline due to a funding shortfall.
The HELP Foundation will be forced to lay off specialist staff and cut services after the Government refused it $200,000 to keep the line going, spokeswoman Aimee Stockenstroom said. News of the shortfall came despite a commitment from the Government to work closely with HELP to establish a sustainable telephone service for the future in December 2011.
"For victims of sexual assault and rape, the potential to suffer devastating mental health consequences is high and early intervention must be seen as a survivor's right," Stockenstroom said.
HELP takes about 12,000 calls a year from victims of sexual assault and rape, or around 250 calls a week. Stockenstroom said one in five women were sexually assaulted or raped in their lifetime.
"It is not ethical, and shocking for us to think in the middle of the night when the terror can be the most overwhelming, there will no longer be someone there at the end of the phone."
Green MP Jan Logie said it was appalling it had only taken the Government a year to renege on its commitment to the helpline. Logie said while sexual violence reporting rates were increasing, the Government was not reflecting that in its funding, despite widespread acknowledgement that the services were vital.
"In 2009, the Taskforce for Action for Sexual Abuse identified the urgent need to increase funding to support services," she said.
"This has not happened and now even the current meagre resources are being reduced."
Previously, the help line was funded by ACC, however that was axed in May 2009. Interim funding was provided until last year, when a cross-agency group comprising the Ministries of Justice, Social Development, Health and ACC was set up to discuss a long-term solution.
Stockenstroom said HELP wanted to continue to work with the Government but simply could not continue without enough money.
More information can be found on www.helpauckland.org.nz.
The foundation is also taking donations at any branch of ASB bank. A donations account will run from 12 October 2012 through to 26 October 2012. The account number is ASB: 12 3205 0175 043 00.

© 2012 Fairfax NZ News

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7819530/Help-for-rape-victims-under-threat

Opportunity for fresh thinking on ACC philosophy ... and funding

An editorial from the Gisborne Herald by John Jones

As the turmoil from the Bronwyn Pullar/ACC scandal subsides, it could lead into a worthwhile debate about how New Zealand’s innovative, no-fault insurance scheme is funded.
The present full-funding system, established in 1974, has been attacked by the Greens who want to switch to a pay-as-you-go system. That would see levies set at a level needed to meet the current costs of the scheme, with a buffer for unexpected events. Its greatest appeal is that it would see an immediate drop in ACC levies, which would be a huge relief for many small and medium-sized businesses.
The object of the fully-funded scheme is to ensure the corporation has enough in reserve to meet its current costs and the future costs of existing claims. It has a goal of reaching that by 2019 and so far has assets of $24 billion, just $4 billion below the target.
The principle of full funding is not applied to other social spending such as health, welfare or education. But with the corporation now so close to reaching its goal, would it be wise to change course?
ACC Minister Judith Collins, who will be far from grateful at getting such a poisoned chalice, is against the pay-as-you-go system — making the good point that future generations would be burdened with the cost of today’s injuries as well as their own.
It seems we are already piling up enough costs for those who will follow — environmental especially.
However, if ever there was a good time to look closely at how ACC is funded and the philosophy involved it is now, with half of the eight-member board having resigned because of the Bronwyn Pullar scandal. This creates an opportunity to bring in fresh faces and some dynamic new thinking — not only to change the corporation’s culture and repair its image, but in setting its future direction.
For Ms Collins, it is an opportunity to create something good from actions and attitudes that have caused harm. Let’s hope she takes it.

© 2012 The Gisborne Herald

http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/opinion/editorial/?id=28189

ACC minister put pressure on bosses to make complaint - Labour

An article from the New Zealand Herald by Adam Bennett

ACC bosses laid a police complaint alleging blackmail by claimant Bronwyn Pullar and Michelle Boag after being pressured by their minister Judith Collins, Labour MP Andrew Little says.
In a general debate at Parliament this afternoon Mr Little claimed that during a meeting between ACC Ralph Stewart, chairman John Judge and Ms Collins in Auckland the day after a massive privacy breach at ACC was revealed, Ms Collins told the two men to "go after Michelle Boag".
"She urged and pressured and pressed the chief executive and chairman of the board to make a complaint to the police and that's what they did".
ACC laid a complaint against Ms Pullar in March a week after she went to the media about the corporation's error in mistakenly emailing her information about thousands of other claimants seven months earlier.
ACC alleged that during a meeting with two ACC managers in December last year, Ms Pullar and her support person, former National Party president Ms Boag threatened to go to the media with the information unless Ms Pullar was granted a two year guaranteed benefit.
However two weeks ago, police said no offence was "disclosed" and a few days later ACC chief executive Ralph Stewart and his chairman John Judge last week resigned.
"She told them to do it and then when the police came back and said there's nothing here... she hung them out to dry", Mr Little said this afternoon under the protection of parliamentary privilege.
Ms Collins has consistently said she had nothing to do with ACC's decision to make the complaint against Ms Pullar.
Ms Collins is currently progressing defamation proceedings against Mr Little and his colleague Trevor Mallard after the pair repeated allegations made in Parliament in a subsequent interview on Radio NZ which linked Ms Collins to the leak of a revealing email about the December meeting.

No return to 'pay as you go'
Ms Collins has ruled out a return to "pay as you go" funding for the corporation, a move opposition parties were backing as a means to make the scheme more affordable.
National abandoned pay as you go and instituted "full funding" for the accident insurance scheme in 1998 when it opened the scheme up to private competition. When Labour took office in the following year it agreed to retain full funding.
Full funding or "pre-funding" means the insurer aims to build up big reserves of cash assets sufficient to make payments to all the claimants on its books for the likely duration of their claim.
Pay as you go means annual claims are largely matched by annual levies and other income and as such it requires lower levies and the corporation to hold smaller reserves.
Labour's current position is that it would retain full funding if it returned to Government, but ACC spokesman Andrew Little recently said his party was reviewing its position and called for a public debate about funding options.
Mr Little noted Ms Collins had not dismissed the possibility of a return to pay as you go in recent comments but this afternoon she did just that.
"Pay as you go is not for us," she said.
"We're not going to burden the next generations with the accidents of this generation and I'm surprised that the Greens and Labour who support the Cullen fund on the same basis that it's pre-funding superannuation would suddenly decide that they want to burden our future generations with the cost of our injuries.
"I think it's somewhat unrealistic and we're actually doing very well on the funding what we're looking at is just some of the levels of pre-funding but in terms of pre-funding it's not for us."

© 2012 APN Holdings NZ Ltd

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10814318

ACC minister rejects funding change

An article from the Dominion Post by Vernon Small

ACC Minister Judith Collins has finally rejected a return to "pay-as-you-go" funding for the state-owned insurer, after earlier refusing to rule it out as part of a review of funding options.
"Pay as you go is not for us, no," she said today.
Labour spokesman Andrew Little has called for a debate about dumping the current fully funded model, which would allow levies to drop by up to 25 per cent.
The Greens' Kevin Hague favoured a switch to pay-as-you-go, but was also eyeing up to $15 billion in reserves held by the corporation for other projects.
Collins said the Government did not want to burden future generations with the cost of current accidents.
"I'm surprised that the Greens and Labour, who support the Cullen fund on the same basis as it's pre-funding superannuation, would suddenly decide that they want to burden our future generations with the cost of our injuries."
Some claimants could be with the corporation for up to 80 years, so it was unrealistic. to shift to pay-as-you-go.
She said the corporation was doing well on funding.
"What we're looking at is just looking at some of the levels of pre-funding," she said.
Under the current fully-funded model, ACC sets levies to cover the current and future costs of existing claimants and is aiming to reach its fully funded target by 2019. ACC currently has investments of $19.5b and a net liability of $4.5b.
Hague had said changing the way ACC was funded could give a $1b windfall to workers and businesses and free up the reserves to cut government debt or fund the Christchurch rebuild.
Little favoured leaving the existing reserves with ACC.
In the current year, ACC expects to collect $5b in levies from workers, employers and motor vehicle owners and pay out $2.8b.

© 2012 Fairfax NZ News

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7137311/ACC-minister-rejects-funding-change

Full funding for ACC a political swamp that must be drained

A press release from the Council of Trade Unions

The CTU welcomes indications by two political parties that they would abandon "full funding" of ACC claims and return to pay as you go with a substantial reserve, CTU Economist Bill Rosenberg says.
"We would encourage the government to use its current review of ACC funding methods to review full funding", he said.
"Full funding has proven to be a political swamp because the funding target rises and falls by as much as annual levy payments. This is a result of changes in assumptions about discount rates, investment returns, rehabilitation rates and cost inflation. It provides excuses for political swamp dwellers to alternate between cries of 'ACC funding crisis' and 'unaffordable levies' without a real basis for either."
In addition building the reserves required for it has been a major driver of rising levies.
Full funding has no practical purpose for a publicly provided service backed by the government. Unlike the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, it does not provide for future generations. It just covers the highly variable estimates of the cost of current claims.
Even a major event like the Christchurch earthquake "will not have a significant impact on ACC’s overall financial situation" according to ACC's own Statement of Intent, and outstanding claims are estimated at just $52 million compared to the total $2.8 billion claims budgeted for in the year to June 2012 and total assets of $24 billion. A sensible level of reserves would cover such situations.
"ACC's history shows that the biggest risk it has to cover is the political risk of opportunist or hostile politicians undermining its credibility. An adequate level of reserves would insure against that and major disasters. The huge reserves required for full funding are simply a burden on the economy."

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1206/S00266/full-funding-for-acc-a-political-swamp-that-must-be-drained.htm

ACC changes could return $1b to workers

An article from Stuff by Vernon Small

Changing the way ACC is funded could give a $1 billion windfall to workers and businesses and free up billions of dollars in reserves that could be used to cut government debt or fund the Christchurch rebuild, Green MP Kevin Hague says. The Greens back a change to "pay-as-you-go" funding for ACC.
Labour ACC spokesman Andrew Little has also called for a public debate about the option and the Council of Trade Unions and ACC lobby groups have weighed in with calls for change.
ACC Minister Judith Collins has not ruled out dropping the current "full- funding" model. However, yesterday she appeared to back away from that, saying the Government "does not want to burden future generations of New Zealanders with the cost of injuries that occur today as well as the cost of their own injuries".
Under full funding, the corporation sets levies above the annual cost of claims so it can build up reserves to also cover the future costs of existing claims. It aims to reach that goal by 2019, and currently has investments of $19.5b and a net liability of $4.5b.
Little said his calculations, based on pre-2009 levies, suggested about $1b could be sliced off annual levies under a move to pay-as-you-go funding.
"Since every wage and salary earner and every business pays it, it will have a noticeable impact."
In the current year, ACC expects to collect $5b in levies from workers, employers and motor vehicle owners and pay out $2.8b. Little favoured leaving the existing reserves with ACC.
However, Hague said the reserves could be reduced to about $6b - enough for a buffer of two or three years. The remaining $14b could be used to "even out the distinctions" between illness and accident-related cover, cut debt, invest in capital projects or help pay for the Christchurch rebuild.
"We could make much better use of the dollars than keeping them in uncertain investments," he said.
A change was yesterday backed by lobby group ACC Futures Coalition. Spokeswoman Hazel Armstrong said private insurers needed full funding to cover claims, but it was not appropriate for a public agency such as ACC. It had been used to create "a false sense of crisis" at ACC.
Pension and retirement expert Michael Littlewood has long campaigned for full funding to be dropped, and today CTU economist Bill Rosenberg said full-funding had become  "a political swamp" that needed draining. The funding target rose and fell as a result of changes in assumptions about discount rates, investment returns, rehabilitation rates and cost inflation.
"It provides excuses for political swamp dwellers to alternate between cries of 'ACC funding crisis' and 'unaffordable levies' without a real basis for either. In addition building the reserves required for it has been a major driver of rising levies."

© 2012 Fairfax New Zealand Ltd

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/7137311/ACC-changes-could-return-1b-to-workers