ACC is taking much longer to process claims despite taking on hundreds of extra staff, National’s ACC spokesperson Michael Woodhouse says.

“Since Labour came to Government, ACC’s staff numbers have increased by 400, even though there has been no increase in the number of claims being processed.

“Despite the extra staff, processing rates for claims at ACC have fallen well below target – from 565 per full time employee (FTE) in October 2017, to 474 today.

“This is a five-year low and 20 per cent below the performance target.

“Meanwhile, businesses face waiting longer to contact the ACC call centre, even though the number of businesses making contact has not increased.

“Business call response times and abandonment rates are at record highs. Businesses are now waiting almost four times as long to get a response since 2017, leading more than four in 10 businesses to abandon their ACC call before they get through to an operator.

“It’s no surprise that none of ACC’s trust scores have been above target since the beginning of 2021.

“Kiwis deserve a world-class accident compensation scheme, which runs efficiently to deliver great results. But under Labour, ACC has increased its spending, hired more bureaucrats and is delivering worse results.

“Given the existing decline in ACC’s general performance, it’s difficult to imagine that they could manage Labour’s income insurance scheme as well, (also known as the ‘jobs tax’), despite the Government pouring an additional $60 million in to prepare it for the task.

“Across every part of government, the results are the same – more bureaucrats, more spending and worse results. ACC is just another example of the Labour Government’s woeful management of taxpayers’ money.”