Tū Te Akaaka Roa, The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) New Zealand National Office does not support the passing of the Social Security (Accident Compensation and Calculation of Weekly Income) Amendment Act. We advocate for justice for all abuse survivors.
“Clawing back support from trauma survivors does not achieve fairness,” said Dr Hiran Thabrew Chair the Aotearoa NZ office of the RANZCP.
“This legislation targets some of the most vulnerable people in our community – tāngata who have already endured significant trauma, often lifelong, and who relied on supplementary assistance simply to survive while waiting for their ACC claims to be processed.
“We are deeply concerned that the human cost of this policy has been grossly underestimated. Clawing back payments that a person was eligible for based on their income at the time of payment retroactively compounds harm,” Dr Thabrew said.
The psychiatric evidence is clear: financial stress, housing insecurity, and the experience of having support removed are all significant drivers of mental health deterioration. For people with trauma histories, this kind of systemic shock does not just cause hardship but causes lifelong harm.
We call on the Government to reconsider the retrospective application of this legislation and to urgently assess its impact on the mental health and wellbeing of those affected.