Arabic version: NRMA تسدد لمصابي حوادث في نيو ساوث ويلز بعد أخطاء في مزايا التأمين الإلزامي
According to ABC News, NRMA Insurance has repaid hundreds of people injured in NSW motor vehicle accidents after incorrectly calculating some compulsory third party benefits since 2019. The insurer initially estimated about 700 people had been underpaid, then revised that figure to 400.
The issue was identified by a lawyer who found that a client’s weekly payments did not add up. NRMA Insurance said it became aware in late April through a customer’s legal representative that statutory indexation may not have been correctly applied to weekly payments for customers receiving benefits more than 78 weeks after an accident.
Under the NSW CTP scheme, people unable to work because of motor vehicle injuries can receive income support. Payments begin at 95 per cent of pre-accident weekly earnings and can fall to a maximum of 85 per cent after 14 weeks, depending on work capacity. They are meant to be adjusted twice each year in line with average weekly earnings.
NRMA Insurance said its investigation confirmed an error in its system’s application of indexation. It said the system had been corrected, affected customers had been repaid with interest, and it had apologised. The insurer also identified a further group of people it believed were owed interest after previously receiving lump-sum payments. The average affected claimant was out of pocket by $940.
NSW Greens MP Abigail Boyd said it was extraordinary that the insurer had not found the problem itself. The State Insurance Regulatory Authority said it had been investigating the latest issue since May, had required NRMA to remediate affected payments, and would determine its regulatory response once the investigation was complete.
NRMA Insurance was censured by SIRA in February 2023 after more than 2,000 customers were underpaid, leading to repayments exceeding $735,000. Further censure letters that year concerned delayed weekly-benefit processing and delays in starting payments. In 2024, SIRA imposed a $10,000 penalty over CTP policy demerit-point loading.
