Flaws in ACC cover exposed

An 11-year-old boy who watched his father stabbed to death cannot get state-funded counselling because he suffered no physical injury.

The boy's case is the latest to expose flaws in the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) system which leaves some victims with nowhere to turn, the Press reported today.

Victims can receive state-funded counselling only if they have trauma arising from a physical injury or if they are victims of sexual abuse.

Liam Linwood was at a family dinner party in Methven in January 2004 when a dispute broke out and his father, Don, 41, was fatally stabbed with a boning knife.

Linwood's attacker, Matthew Albert Walsh, 36, was jailed for a minimum jail term of 11 years.

Liam, now 13, struggled with the death and the aftermath.

But ACC refused Maxine Linwood trauma counselling for her son.

"If Liam had lost a finger or thumb, it would be different," she said.

"But he did not qualify. It was not traumatic enough."

ACC does not cover witnesses of an accident or injury, such as train drivers who hit cars or soldiers returning from war, unless they are physically injured themselves.

A sportsman unable to play sport owing to injury, and who then suffers depression, can qualify. But a victim threatened at gunpoint, or who has their family wiped out by a crime, does not.

Victim Support has been lobbying for change for years, and even ACC Minister Ruth Dyson recognises the law's unfairness.

"I do think that the gap is not fair and that a lot of people are not well enough supported by our system," she said.

- NZPA