Overseas help bumps up quake costs

After the September 4 earthquake EQC brought 200 extra insurance workers from Australia to help process the thousands of claims. Photo / Mark Mitchell

More than $7 million has been spent on overseas workers brought in to help cope with the workload after the Canterbury earthquake.

About 200 insurance loss adjusters were brought to Canterbury from Australia by the Earthquake Commission (EQC) after the devastating 7.1-magnitude quake which struck on September 4, causing widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure.

Canterbury is still being hit by sizeable aftershocks which are causing further damage, including a 4.9-magnitude quake which struck on Boxing Day.

At December 1, payments totalling $7,091,448 had been made for these workers, figures from EQC, released under the Official Information Act, show. This figure does not include the cost of accommodation for the Australian workers.

Fees for the loss adjusters - who have worked three weeks on, one week off, since shortly after the earthquake - amounted to $6.6 million.

EQC chief operating officer Lance Dixon said it became clear New Zealand did not have enough loss adjusters available to deal with the aftermath of a major natural disaster.

"We now have plans in place to bring in overseas workers to complement whatever resource we are able to muster from New Zealand," hesaid.

"The New Zealand resources includes the 22 contractors EQC has on retainer who have provided a commitment to put EQC work first, and the new adjuster scheme started by EQC late in 2009 to introduce new people to the loss adjusting industry, which is an ageing profession."

Meanwhile, as of December 13, claimants from the Canterbury quake had lodged 160,923 claims with the EQC, and of these, 20,091 had been completed.

Payments totalling $444,625,749 had been made, including 11,129 building payments, 7987 contents payments and 938 land payments.

The number of claims stemming from the Boxing Day aftershock alone is now up to 2650.

EQC is now estimating the Canterbury quake and aftershocks could cost it up to $3.5 billion.