Media release from the National Foundation for the Deaf Inc

Nearly 20,000 people have written to the Minister for ACC, Dr Nick Smith, opposing proposed ACC regulations that will see people with hearing injuries denied rehabilitation including much needed hearing aids if they can't afford to pay their "share" of the costs.

The National Foundation for the Deaf says the figures show the level of opposition to ACC's plans and believes the government would be very foolhardy to ignore this.

"The fact such a huge number of people have protested against these proposals is a measure of just how wrong people believe these changes are," NFD chief executive Louise Carroll said today. 'Surely the Minister for ACC realises this'.

The figures, provided by Dr Smith in response to an Official Information query by a Wellington lawyer, show 19,738 people sent prepared letters protesting the changes by July 9, while 51 of 55 letters expressed opposition or concern. Fifty-six official submissions were also sub-mitted.

Under the proposed changes, announced in May, ACC will only pay the portion of rehabilitation - hearing aids and audiology fees - that it decides is caused by noise injury. If ACC's assessors say part of the hearing loss is also caused by age or other factors, the claimant will have to pay for that percentage of the costs.

But ACC Minister Nick Smith, when releasing the information about how many people wrote to him, refused to provide key background documents relating to the proposed new regulations.

"The point is that scientists say it is not possible to effectively separate noise damage and age-related hearing loss retrospectively," Mrs Carroll said.

"In fact, the scientists say noise injury can accelerate age-related hearing loss.

"ACC's assessors are also putting sometimes-large portions of a claimant's hearing loss down to "idiopathic" causes - and "idiopathic" means "unknown". The assessors are saying they can't say that portion of hearing was damaged, but equally, they can't say it was not.

"Under these new changes, the claimant will have to find potentially thousands of dollars as their 'share' of the cost of rehabilitation, based on what we believe are faulty assumptions. Many won't be able to afford that and will just go without.

"That's unfair, it's inhumane, and it's not the New Zealand way. Half a hearing aid doesn't work."

Mrs Carroll said that last year ACC provided rehabilitation to just 42 percent of noise-injury claims after a rigorous assessment process, and accepted them as bona fide injuries. Any collateral benefit for other parts of a claimant's hearing loss came at no cost to ACC.

"Dr Smith said recently he had scientific advice on this issue, but he has refused to release it. If Dr Smith has information that says they are wrong, then he should make it public," she said.

"It is a concern that he has information which he says supports fundamental changes to ACC, but won't release it for public scrutiny."