Hearing loss threshold a backward step by ACC

BY LAURA BASHAM

ACC'S introduction of a hearing loss threshold is a cheap shot at older people, says Hearing Association spokesman John Harwood, of Nelson.

He will tell parliamentary select committee tomorrow that introducing a threshold is a backward step that could create more problems in the future.

ACC wants to introduce a threshold of a 6 per cent hearing loss for new claims for assistance for hearing aids, and estimates that will save $3 million to $4m a year.

The Hearing Association, which represents the interests of 400,000 New Zealanders suffering from hearing loss, opposes the threshold.

The Government is already under attack for other proposed cost-saving ACC changes, including nationwide protests over increased motorcycle levies.

ACC covers hearing loss if it is caused by an accident, treatment injury, or noise exposure at work.

It says claims volumes are rising at 12 to 15 per cent a year, and the cost has risen from $44m in four years to $59m, and is expected to go to $65m next year.

However, Mr Harwood said ACC's latest figures for the year to June showed the number of new claims for noise-damaged hearing had fallen by nearly 12 per cent to 5638. That suggested the increase in claims in recent years, particularly by older people, might be a bubble that was now starting to decline.

Mr Harwood, the Hearing Association's South Island chairman and a member of its national board, said ACC was unfairly targeting older people.

The association understood ACC intended to add the threshold to a scale of age-related hearing loss that ACC claimed all older people had. That had the potential to deny them cover at all, or to deny them cover they had received in the past.

ACC appeared to see older people as an easy target, he said. "We regard this penalty as a cheap shot at a group who are no longer paying taxes and levies."

Mr Harwood said people found it hard to talk to others with a hearing loss and sometimes avoided them because of the extra time and difficulties involved.

"For every person suffering with a hearing loss, we believe a further 10 family, friends and workmates are affected. The whole community suffers.

"For many people with hearing loss, modern technology in the form of hearing aids plugs them back into the world and the people around them."

Having a 6 per cent threshold also effectively told employers they did not have to be as rigorous enforcing noise protection because a certain amount of noise damage to their workers' hearing was acceptable, Mr Harwood said.

"That is not acceptable. It is a backward step for people working in industries of all types and has the potential to create more problems in the future.

"The ACC scheme was part of a social contract with the people of New Zealand, and to now deny some of them cover by introducing an artificial threshold was a breach of faith, he said.

His submission protesting against the move, along with others including from the National Foundation for the Deaf, will be heard by the transport and industrial relations select committee which is considering the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill.

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