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A district court judge has criticised a Christchurch medical specialist for allowing a man to stay on an Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) benefit because he was afraid of working.
Judge Martin Beattie said in Christchurch District Court that musculo-skeletal expert Jim Borowczyk had taken "a particularly benevolent" view of Bill Dalley's back injury, over which he had claimed hundreds of thousands of dollars of sickness benefit.
The Press newspaper reported that he rejected Dalley's plea to be allowed to continue the ACC benefit he had been receiving for 24 years.
Judge Beattie said Dalley "lacks any motivation to move outside his comfort zone and I find is using his pain syndrome as an excuse rather than an actual physical barrier to regaining employment".
Dalley, 51, "feared" working after he fell off a horse in 1981, Dr Borowczyk told the court.
"He does not perceive he can hold down a job because of the fact he will have pain," he said.
"Because Mr Dalley has a degree of fear-avoidance of prolonged work duties because of his pain, it is most unlikely he would manage 35 hours a week."
However, the judge took a different view.
Though the long-term beneficiary did suffer chronic back pain, it was "only Dalley's entrenched disability beliefs which are holding him back from actually getting out and working", the judge said.
ACC said Dalley was able to work, based on the assessment of another doctor, Alec Marshall.
Dr Marshall said Dalley seemed fit and well and was capable of normal movement, despite having a slightly prominent vertebra.
A psychologist, Joan Crowe, had earlier observed Dalley did "not appear to be interested in working" during her evaluation of him.
Dalley had been transferred to an invalid benefit, dropping his weekly income from about $450 to $212.
At the time of his accident, the then 25-year-old Dalley was on his 10th job. He was working as a warehouse assistant.
- NZPA
