More than 55,000 motorists overcharged for ACC levy
Of the $330,000 that has been over-collected, more than half is yet to be repaid through a refund process.
A proactively released document by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has revealed the details of what went wrong.
Waka Kotahi advised Transport Minister Michael Wood in September that 55,865 people overpaid the levy when they renewed their vehicle registrations earlier this year.
The ACC motor vehicle levy helps cover the cost of accidents on public roads involving moving vehicles. The levies are calculated to ensure the cost of injuries can be covered, including those needing lifelong support.
This is collected by Waka Kotahi on behalf of ACC when people pay to register their vehicles.
But changes to the levy rates, which came into effect in July, were not updated in the system used to calculate people’s registration fees.
“As licence reminders are sent up to six weeks in advance of the licence renewal date, during the six week period prior to the new rates coming into effect, the notices were sent to customers using the old ACC levy rates,” advice to Wood said.
Organisational changes across Waka Kotahi and ACC in recent years meant information about the levy change was not communicated to the correct team in time, the advice said.
This created the delay in updating the system used to calculate registration fees.
“With the aim of maintaining the integrity of the levy collection system and process, a decision was made in consultation with ACC to front-foot the error and communicate with those customers who were overcharged,” the advice said.
Letters about the mix-up have been sent out to those affected with instructions on how to request a refund.
ACC head of health partnerships Dr John Robson said $330,812 was over-charged, which was equivalent to about 0.07 per cent of the levy to be collected.
He said ACC has repaid $153,469 as of the end of October and Waka Kotahi will continue to process refunds for as long as they are received.
“Both ACC and Waka Kotahi have updated their Memorandum of Understanding for levy collection to ensure roles and responsibilities are clearly understood to ensure this does not happen again.”
Waka Kotahi also made assurances in its update to the Minister that procedures were being updated to prevent the problem from happening again.
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Even Australians get it - so why not Kiwis???
“Ten years ago, if a heatwave as intense as last week’s record-breaker had hit the east coast, Australia’s power supply may well have buckled. But this time, the system largely operated as we needed, despite some outages.
On Australia’s main grid last quarter, renewables and energy storage contributed more than 50% of supplied electricity for the first time, while wholesale power prices were more than 40% lower than a year earlier.
[…] shifting demand from gas and coal for power and petrol for cars is likely to deliver significantly lower energy bills for households.
Last quarter, wind generation was up almost 30%, grid solar 15% and grid-scale batteries almost tripled their output. Gas generation fell 27% to its lowest level for a quarter century, while coal fell 4.6% to its lowest quarterly level ever.
Gas has long been the most expensive way to produce power. Gas peaking plants tend to fire up only when supply struggles to meet demand and power prices soar. Less demand for gas has flowed through to lower wholesale prices.”
Full article: www.theguardian.com...
If even Australians see the benefit of solar - then why is NZ actively boycotting solar uptake? The increased line rental for electricity was done to make solar less competitive and prevent cost per kWh to rise even more than it did - and electricity costs are expected to rise even more. Especially as National favours gas - which is the most expensive form of generating electricity. Which in turn will accelerate Climate Change, as if New Zealand didn’t have enough problems with droughts, floods, slips, etc. already.
Poll: As a customer, what do you think about automation?
The Press investigates the growing reliance on your unpaid labour.
Automation (or the “unpaid shift”) is often described as efficient ... but it tends to benefit employers more than consumers.
We want to know: What do you think about automation?
Are you for, or against?
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9.3% For. Self-service is less frustrating and convenient.
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43.6% I want to be able to choose.
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47.1% Against. I want to deal with people.
Rock'in with Elvis by Mike Cole
The Memories of Elvis Fan Club invite you to our 1st Elvis Social for 2026. We are excited to have our own Mike Cole back at the Te Atatu RSA on Saturday 28th February at 7.30pm. Cost only $20pp. Tickets are on sale at the RSA or reserve through Jackie 0274901126. So lets see you with your dancing shoes on and that great smile as we start off 2026 with a bang.
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