People who lodge Accident Compensation Corporation claims in December stay off work longer on average than at any other time of the year and it adds $3 million to the annual weekly compensation bill, ACC says.
General practitioners have been asked by ACC to ensure they do not issue ACC certificates to people when they should be receiving holiday pay.
The issue is raised in the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners electronic newsletter to GPs in which ACC states analysis has identified patients with an accident in December take longer to return to work than patients who have an accident in any other month.
"Longer periods of incapacity certification during this period add $3 million to weekly compensation expenditure."
Questions to ACC clarified that the $3 million is an annual amount, not a weekly increased cost over the December/January period.
ACC business manager claims management network Jason Lardelli said ACC spent between $800 million and $1 billion a year on weekly compensation - between $15 million and $19 million a week.
The extra $3 million associated with December claims "may not seem large when viewed in this broader context" but it was a significant amount of money and "on behalf of levy payers ACC wants to ensure we're spending that money appropriately".
On average, December clients were likely to be paid weekly compensation for 4% longer, or about three and a-half days longer, than people who lodged claims in any other month.
The reasons for this were uncertain.
Weekly compensation could only be paid for injury-related time off work. If the injury did not prevent someone from working on a day which fell within a holiday period, then any salary or wages the person received for that day should come from their holiday pay and not weekly compensation, he said.
