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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Poll: Should drivers retake the theory test every 10 years?
Drivers get where they need to go, but sometimes it seems that we are all abiding by different road rules (for example, the varying ways drivers indicate around a roundabout).
Do you think drivers should be required to take a quick driving theory test every 10 years?
Vote in the poll and share any road rules that you've seen bent! 😱
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49.5% Yes
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48.6% No
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1.9% Other - I'll share below
Here's Thursday's thinker!
I am lighter than air, but a hundred people cannot lift me. What am I?
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Why make picking up reserved library books harder? What do you think? Challenge: Write the last stanza for the first poem attached below.
Once books are reserved in Auckland Libraries books, when they are available no longer go alphabetically by customer but instead go into a Holds pickup shelf number based presumably somehow on when each book needs to be picked up by.
I had two books reserved that arrived on two different days in the Blockhouse Bay Library and hence each book has a different shelf number. Hard to find unless you knew the shelf number in the notification email. Even if you knew the shelf number I found myself three books by the same author on the two shelf numbers.
More recently yesterday a book I reserved was on a different shelf number than was specified in my notification email (see image below).
Sadly it is clear from library staff that a numerical system for reserves is here to stay.
I suggest that so that all books for each person has the same shelf number, the shelf number becomes the last digit of a person's library card (0-9).
Within each shelf number a book is found under the day the reserve arrives in the library (01 to 31, hopefully the same date the email is sent).
Since a customer appears to have 10 days to pick up a book, ten days of the month would appear to be required at any time (for each digit 0-9).
Once there are 10 days used the next day's reserves could go back at the beginning of the shelf number after any remaining books not collected (hopefully none) are removed (along with the old day number and the new day number (01 to 31) inserted) after the last day available and future days' books remaining moved forward to make room.
Each day number (01-31) would appear once for each shelf number (0-9) before the first book on that day- perhaps cover an old withdrawn book with paper with each day number on the spine?
When a reserved book arrives in the library the last digit of the library card could be placed on a piece of paper in the book to be removed when it is put on the shelf, to be recycled the next day.
What do you think?
See the image below and page 3 below for a letter appearing in the Western Leader on 9 September:
www.neighbourly.co.nz...
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