Section Sch1-55A — Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Act 2001: Certain persons may elect to receive either lump sum compensation or independence allowance: assessment, notification, and election

55A Certain persons may elect to receive either lump sum compensation or independence allowance: assessment, notification, and election (1) The Corporation must, to enable a person to make an election under subclause (4), determine whether the person meets the criteria for entitlement to both lump sum compensation (under clauses 57 to 60 ) and an independence allowance (under clauses 58 to 60 of Schedule 1 of the Accident Insurance Act 1998). (2) However, a determination under subclause (1) is required only if the person— (a) suffered a personal injury caused by a work-related gradual process, disease, or infection in the circumstances described in section 30(2) ; and (b) last performed the task or was employed in the environment in those circumstances before 1 April 2002; and (c) suffered the personal injury on or after the date on which section 33 of the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Amendment Act 2008came into force. (3) The Corporation must, after complying with subclause (1),— (a) make a decision (which, to avoid doubt, is to be treated as a single decision) as to whether the person has, for the purposes of an election under subclause (4), an entitlement to both lump sum compensation and an independence allowance; and (b) notify the person of its decision, in accordance with section 64 , and include with that notification information about— (i) the Corporation’s assessment of the person’s degree of whole-person impairment; and (ii) the amounts of lump sum compensation and independence allowance that the person would, if he or she elected to receive that compensation or allowance, be entitled to receive; and (iii) the Corporation’s estimate of the period for which the person would need to receive an independence allowance for that allowance to equal the value of the lump sum compensation that would be payable to the person, calculated using appropriate actuarial methodology; and (c) inform the person— (i) that he or she is entitled to elect which of the entitlements he or she wishes to receive; and (ii) of the matters specified in subclause (4). (4) A person who is assessed as having an entitlement to either lump sum compensation or an independence allowance— (a) may, within 60 days of being given notification in accordance with section 64 , elect which entitlement he or she wishes to receive; or (b) is, if no election is made within 60 days, deemed to have elected to receive an independence allowance. (5) An election under subclause (4)(a) must be made in writing to the Corporation. (6) Section 37 applies for the purposes of subclause (2)(c). (7) Section 64 applies to a notification by the Corporation under this clause as if the notification were a notice of a decision on a claim. Schedule 1 clause 55A: inserted, on 1 August 2008, by section 33(1) of the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Amendment Act 2008 (2008 No 46).