Dear Accident Compensation Corporation,

Thank you for your OIA Response of 4/3/2020 to my OIA request for a copy of ACC2222 Remote Claims Unit referral form: https://fyi.org.nz/request/12147/followu...

Background to this request.

In your referred response you made the following statement with respect to the WCB and the RCU:

"The Wellington Central Branch is also known as Te Ara Tika. The Remote Claims Unit and Wellington Central Branch have not been amalgamated."

I refer you to ACC's Client Service Delivery Phase Three Consultation and Feedback Proposal for consideration documentation that was embargoed until 2 April 2019, which can be found at this web site https://www.acc.co.nz/assets/corporate-d....

I draw your attention to page 20 of this document where it states down on the left hand side of the Operating Mode: Partnered Recovery diagram that set out occupational roles within ACC's then Proposed Partnered Recovery Model om the b;ck framed retangular box and which states:

"The Remote Claims Unit will report to one of the Client Services Leaders, Partnered Recovery."

I note that under the Partnered Recovery Operating Model there were 9 Client Service Leaders were to be appointed to 8 geographical regions and one of the 9 Client Service Leaders would be responsible for the Wellington Central Branch/Te Ara Tika Team which the Corporation in their diagram denotes as being the ninth Region for the Partnered Recovery team in the Operating Model.

I see with interest that Wellington Central Branch/Te Ara Tika Team, out of the 9 Regional Partnered Recovery Teams is the only Team to have had appointed Principal Advisor Roles of which 3 were proposed.

The hierarchy of authority from most senior to least follows from top to bottom;

Client Service Leader Partnered Recovery Regional

Principal Advisor (x3)

Team leader Te Ara Tika Team /WCB (x1)

Recovery Partner. (x6)

OIA Request 1:

Please confirm whether the Client Service Leader tasked with overseeing the Remote Claims Unit holds the delegated authority over the same 3 Principal Advisors that provide the advice to the WCB/Te Ara Tika Team Leader, and the 6 Recovery Partners within this team.

OIA Request 2:

If the answer to OIA Request 1 above is no, please confirm whether the Client Service Leader and the team that assist the claimants in the Remote Claims Unit in their recoveries has delegated authority, and ongoing access to involve a Principal Advisor on complex matters.

OIA Request 3:

Please confirm how many Principal Advisors, Team Leaders and Recovery Partners are allocated to serve the ACC's clients in the Remote Claims Unit? Do ACC's remote claims unit share Policy Advisors, Team Leaders and Recover Partners with any other region or team?

OIA Request 4:

For each of the years ending 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 please provide the following information;

(i). The number of full time equivalent employees that serviced ACC's clients held in ACC's Remote Claims Unit, on an annual basis.

(ii) The total number of combined hours that ACC's remote Claims Unit Staff invested in helping out all of ACC's clients held in the Remote Claims Unit through each year?

(iii) Please provide a break down of the average number of hours an ACC Remote Claims Unit client's would receive each in case management contact to promote their recovery for each of the following time intervals;

(a) quarterly,
(b) monthly, and
(c) weekly.

(iv) The total amount in dollar terms restricted to ACC remote claims staff's renumeration for providing services to remote claims unit clients (please exclude any redundancy payments or severance payments that may skew results) for each year.

OIA Request 5:

For each of the years ending 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 please provide the following information;

(i) The number of ACC Remote Claim's Unit clients that made no contact with the ACC remote claims team within that year,

(ii) The number of ACC Remote Claim's Unit clients that the ACC remote claims team made no contact within each year.

(iii) The combined total number of contacts made to ACC remote claims unit staff by ACC's remote claims unit client's, together with a further breakdown of how many of these contacts were;

* Face to Face,
* by way of letter,
* by way of email,
* by way of fax,
* by way of phone.

(iv) The combined total number of contacts made to ACC's remote claims unit client's to ACC remote claims unit staff, together with a further breakdown of how many of these contacts were;

* Face to Face,
* by way of letter,
* by way of email,
* by way of fax,
* by way of phone.

OIA Request 6

(a) Do staff within the remote claims unit use pseudonym's and not their real names?

(b) Do staff within the Wellington Central Branch/Te Ara Tika Team use pseudonym's and not their real names?

If so how is an RCU or WCB client able to request from an ACC employee under the provisions of the Official Information Act clarification about the ACC's employees decision making regarding covers and entitlements requested from the Corporation?

I confirm that under s16(2) of the Official Information Act, my preferred way of receiving a response is by email to the address from which ACC received the original request, not by post.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Yours faithfully,

David Lawson