ACC claims it didn't know man injured in Christchurch terror attack needed support
Monday, 5 July 2021
Hisham Al Zarzour will never be able to work a physical job again after being injured in the Christchurch mosque attack, yet has never received any wage compensation.
After escaping the Syrian war and arriving as a refugee with his young family in July 2018, Al Zarzour spent a few months learning English before gaining a casual contract plastering for a building company.
He declared his income while receiving a job seeker's benefit, paid taxes, and did what he could to learn the trade and secure permanent work, but has received no ACC wage compensation after being shot in the left hip while praying at Masjid An Nur (Al Noor mosque) on March 15, 2019.
ACC could not provide information on the number of March 15 victims who had been turned down wage compensation, but Stuff has been told of at least five injured, some mentally unable to work, and multiple families of those killed who receive none.
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An ACC spokeswoman said Al Zarzour said he was receiving a benefit and did not request weekly compensation “or let us know he was earning”, so weekly compensation was not considered.
“It has only recently come to our attention that he was working at the time he was injured, and we are now looking into what weekly compensation he may be entitled to.”
If accepted, this would be back-dated, she said.
Al Zarzour said he frequently told ACC staff over the phone he had been a casual worker, and was told that made him ineligible for wage compensation.
“I was casual because I was new in New Zealand.”
Despite ACC covering the bulk of his medical bills, he got nothing for his lost earnings, and he knew of about three others in the same situation, he said.
He questioned why Government agencies were not able to communicate with each other to assess what compensation he was eligible for – especially since he was new to the country.
He informed the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) every week how many hours he had worked so it could adjust his benefit accordingly, and was given payslips from his employer showing his tax payments.
“[ACC] said they could get it from IRD, but they never did.”
He was earning minimum wage doing between 18 and 45 hours per week from January 2019 until the attack.
ACC pays up to 80 per cent of a person’s income if they are unable to work because of an injury.
Al Zarzour also broke his hand when he fell during the attack, but the break was only discovered 18 months later, despite his constant pain. The delay in treatment caused permanent damage that a specialist was trying to fix.
“There is no liquid between the bones and the bones are touching each other.”
He had one surgery on his bullet injuries on March 15, and another in October 2020 to try to connect the bones together in his hand.
The last surgery was unsuccessful, so he was awaiting more surgery to remove the screws and find a new way to repair the damage.
He was now no longer able to work a physical job.
He, his wife, and their four children were living off the job seeker’s benefit, or income he gained from a recent job as an Uber driver. But the surgery needed on his hand would put that work on hold again.
The minister in charge of the response to the attack, Andrew Little, rejected calls for government compensation for those affected by the shooting, saying reparation for victims came in the form of ACC payments and other agency support.
Al Zarzour said disputed Little’s comments.
“You didn’t support all of them. From the first day after March 15 I didn’t receive any payment from ACC.”