New Zealand’s Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) has released its March Monthly Turnaround Plan Report, showing a lower growth rate in the long-term claims pool and one-year return-to-work outcomes at target levels as at March 31, 2026. The March report, published on April 30, 2026, is part of ACC’s Turnaround Plan, which was launched in January 2026 following an independent external review and updated expectations from the government.
ACC’s Turnaround Plan sets out three stated priorities:
The plan responds to an independent review of ACC’s claims management and rehabilitation performance and to an updated Letter of Expectation from Minister for ACC Scott Simpson. It also incorporates recommendations from a board‑commissioned review into organisational culture and a Treasury‑commissioned review of ACC’s investment function. In conjunction with the Turnaround Plan, ACC has adopted a new strategy, Statement of Intent, and Service Agreement intended to guide the organisation over the next four years in rehabilitation performance, operational settings, and scheme funding.
The March data show the growth rate of ACC’s long-term claims pool was 0.3% at the end of March, which ACC describes as the lowest rate recorded in the past 10 years. The long-term claims pool covers clients who have been receiving weekly compensation for more than one year. The total number of long-term claims continued to rise slightly in March, but ACC says it expects reductions in the coming months and remains focused on achieving its year-end target for this metric. ACC chief executive Megan Main said that limiting extended reliance on support, particularly for non‑serious injuries, is a priority under the plan. She said ACC changed how some long-duration claims are managed in mid‑2024 to give these clients more structured, interdisciplinary support aimed at moving them back toward independence.
Return-to-work outcomes remain a central indicator for ACC and levy payers. The corporation measures the proportion of clients on weekly compensation who return to work or independence at several time points – 28 days, 10 weeks, nine months, and one year – as a gauge of rehabilitation performance. For March, ACC reported that 92% of clients receiving weekly compensation had returned to work or independence within one year, matching the corporation’s year-end target for this measure. “There is strong evidence that getting back to, or staying engaged in, work has a positive impact on the person’s mental and physical health. Making sure clients get the right support at the right time also helps ensure sustainability of the ACC scheme into the future,” Main said.
Main said ACC’s statutory role is to support recovery and a return to work and independence but noted that outcomes also depend on decisions made outside the organisation. “Our role is to support people to recover from their injuries and get back to work and independence. But we cannot do this alone. I’m asking all New Zealanders to play their part by keeping themselves and their communities safe and by playing an active role in their recovery. We know a well-supported return to work and staying active and socially connected while recovering help people recover faster. I want to acknowledge the employers who are supporting their staff to recover at work and the providers working with ACC’s clients to deliver better rehabilitation outcomes. Keeping ACC sustainable and meeting these targets is a collective effort from us all,” Main said.
The Turnaround Plan is a direct response to an external performance review commissioned by the Minister for ACC after levy decisions announced in December 2024. The government engaged Finity Consulting Ltd to assess ACC’s approach to addressing declining rehabilitation performance and to identify gaps and improvement options. The review found that ACC had experienced a loss of operational focus over time, with inefficient claims management and reduced effectiveness of rehabilitation support. It said this had contributed to some injured people taking longer than necessary to recover and to claim costs exceeding funding levels.
The reviewers also reported that a previous case management change had not delivered its intended benefits and that concerns about that model were not addressed. They described a weak performance culture, citing limited incentives for clients to exit long-term support, unclear accountability across the system, and insufficient emphasis on core performance measures and monitoring. Key recommendations included simplifying and refocusing strategic priorities on claims management and rehabilitation; accelerating claim decisions through clearer guidance and more autonomy for frontline staff; expanding frontline capability with additional staff, training, clearer career pathways, and use of private providers; strengthening claims triage to match resources to client needs; and improving performance monitoring and analysis. ACC has incorporated these recommendations into the structure of the Turnaround Plan and its regular reporting framework.
To track the turnaround programme, ACC has identified eight key measures that are reported on a monthly basis. These include total new claim registrations – more than 2 million injury claims each year – as well as short‑ and long‑term return‑to‑work rates and the size and growth rate of the long-term claims pool. The corporation is also tracking what it describes as social rehabilitation savings. Social rehabilitation covers aids and equipment, attendant care, childcare, education support, home help, home modifications, training, and transport and can extend to 24‑hour care in the community or at home for clients who cannot live independently. ACC has reported that social rehabilitation costs reached $1.5 billion in 2025, and it is monitoring savings generated by aligning support more closely with assessed injury needs.
Elective surgery spending is another focus. ACC has recorded a 35% increase in elective surgery costs over the past two years, along with a higher proportion of those surgery patients going on to receive weekly compensation. ACC uses this measure to assess how surgery approvals and subsequent rehabilitation are being managed. Turnaround Plan progress reports are published on ACC’s resources page on the last business day of each month, providing regular updates on rehabilitation, claims management, and scheme cost trends for stakeholders across the insurance and wider risk-transfer sector.
