The Government is looking at ways to stop ACC payments to people who get injured while committing crimes.
Tomorrow the Government is to reveal around 20 areas it is looking to cut back ACC entitlements, at the same time as proposed levy increases are revealed.
ACC Minister Nick Smith says costs have risen out of control and there is not enough money to cover the future costs of ACC entitlements.
Today Dr Smith said one of the areas that the Government was looking at cutting out was ACC lump sum and income compensation payments to those hurt when committing criminal acts.
The changes would not cut ACC paying for the treatment of people no matter how stupid or illegal their actions.
Dr Smith said it was possible that those who lost their ACC entitlements would move over to the benefit system.
"We are not a country that leaves people starving, but ACC tends to be a lot more generous in its financial support," Dr Smith said.
"There have been examples where people have been involved in the drugs trade - been blown up in P lab - who have been able to get quite generous compensation as a consequence of their criminal acts and we think it is wrong."
There were "difficult boundary issues" in some areas such as driving offences where a person had just been careless compared to someone who was recidivist drunk driver.
He believed it was possible to retain ACC's principle of "no-fault" coverage, and have a sliding scale for criminal activity.
Dr Smith said it was difficult to work out how much the changes would save.
"It would not be one of the major saving items, but given the level of pressure there is on levies, given the sacrifices we are going to be asking a large number of New Zealanders to accept change in, it is an issue of fairness," he said.
"We don't think it is proper for criminals, who may be making a P lab, who may be involved in a burglary, who may be drunk driving for the second or third time, we don't think it is fair that they get lump sum or income compensation."
Other areas that have been flagged for change include a reduction in the subsidy for physiotherapy and income compensation for the families of those who commit suicide.
Free physiotherapy care had been budgeted to cost $9 million, but was now costing $139 million and was projected to rise to $225 million with no equivalent rise in rehabilitation rates.
Other areas of cost increases have included the extension of medical misadventure cover.
This had been estimated to originally cost $8.7 million, but total cost has risen from $42 million to $82 million.
Dr Smith has also in the past referred to changes made in 2007 for workplace trauma, weekly compensation for seasonal/casual employees and the extension of lump sum payouts - originally estimated to cost $75 million a year, but said to have increased well beyond that.
ACC is also making changes to reduce external cost pressure and improve rehabilitation performance.
Measures included negotiating better deals with health professionals, better management of claims, tighter periods for support, limiting support to what was legally required, and reducing administrative costs.
ACC is targeting savings of over $2 billion.
ACC is facing pressure from increased medical costs, extended provisions for things such as medical misadventure, as well as a fall from revenue from its investments which have been hit by the international economic meltdown.
