A Christchurch man, who has been in a four year battle against Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), is preparing for an appeal over his weekly compensation payments in the district court next month.

In a report from stuff.co.nz, Ivan Stryder, a self-employed handyman said he spends most of his days feeling “beyond frustrated.”

Stryder told the publication about his struggling business and several disputes with ACC. He was allegedly granted cover and weekly compensation on the date of the diagnosis on October 15 – not from the date of his back injury in April 2014. The weekly payments amounted to $13.88 per hour and were calculated on his income in the post-injury period, which had dropped to $45,000 from $76,000 the year before. 

ACC reportedly told him there was no evidence his injury in 2014 had prevented him from working and the compensation was based on the date a person was diagnosed as unable to work. Stryder disputes this as several doctors have said there was a causal link between the accident in 2014 and his back injury.

“It’s changed my life, the last four years. I’ve lost my job and my life just trying to battle ACC,” Stryder told the publication.

Retired personal injury and accident compensation lawyer Don Rennie, meanwhile, said changes were needed urgently.

“It can’t keep going the way it is,” Rennie noted. “It’s a board of directors administering a legal system.”

He told Stuff the ACC Act and the administration of the Act was not working to support people like Stryder, the way it was intended to.

“ACC is not an insurance company. ACC is there to apply the law and the law says everybody who has an accident is covered,” he added.

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