EQC gives update on ministerial advisor report

The Earthquake Commission (EQC) has announced it has acted on all recommendations from the independent ministerial advisory team, which are aimed at speeding up settlements of outstanding Canterbury earthquake claims.

Earlier this year, independent ministerial advisor Christine Stevenson was appointed to work with the EQC board and management to identify and report on needed operational changes to the Minister Responsible for EQC. The report was released in June and made 28 recommendations. In July, EQC commissioned KPMG to undertake an independent review of its progress against the implementation of the recommendations. The KPMG report was received in November.

Now, EQC said the final report found that all recommendations have been actioned, and are either fully addressed, or have ongoing activities in progress.

Among the progress EQC has made include:

• The Claimant Reference Group is now fully established and meeting regularly to generate ideas about areas to improve, test improvements, and liaise with the EQC team to monitor and communicate progress.
• The case management model is now embedded and is delivering tangible results for customers through increased claim settlement rates, with a particular focus on aged claims.
• A test case, which EQC believes has the best prospect of determining liability in relation to on-sold overcap properties, has been identified and is expected to be heard in August 2019.

“We will continue to focus on improving the experience for Canterbury customers, both through ongoing implementation of the IMA recommendations, as well as development of new initiatives as required to speed up the resolution of claims,” EQC added.