The scheme provides financial compensation and support to citizens, residents, and temporary visitors who have suffered personal injuries.

The fifth Labour government (elected in November 1999) repealed this change, and as of 1 July 2000 re-instated ACC as the sole provider of accident insurance coverage.

ACC is the sole and compulsory provider of accident insurance in New Zealand for all work and non-work related injuries.

Due to the scheme's no-fault basis, people who have suffered personal injury do not have the right to sue an at-fault party, except for exemplary damages.

These initiatives include "RugbySmart" with New Zealand Rugby,[8] "Ride Forever",[9] "Mates and Dates",[10] and "Make Your Home a Safety Zone" with Safekids Aotearoa.

[12] ACC has been criticised for providing funding for several alternative therapies that are unsupported by scientific evidence, including acupuncture, osteopathy and chiropractic interventions.

[15][16] ACC initially had a "fully funded" model whereby sufficient levies were collected to cover the lifetime cost of each injury, which might require compensation over a period of 30 years or more.

This would require "substantial" levy increases and "legislative change to get people off the scheme and back to work quicker".

Andrew Little, the Labour Party's ACC spokesman, criticised this decision, claiming that it was driven by the government's attempt to bring the budget into surplus and reducing the levy would provide a boost to the economy.

Collins said the Earners and Workers accounts were now fully funded after the Corporation reduced the number of long term ACC claimants from 14,000 to less than 11,000.

[25] There has been some conjecture over whether or not ACC staff were paid incentives to remove long term clients off weekly compensation.

In 2003 Green Party MP Sue Bradford revealed that ACC held investments in brewery industry giants DB Breweries and Lion Nathan, which she claimed contravened ACC's legal obligation to engage in ethical investments to protect New Zealand's global reputation.

[29] In 2016 ACC admitted it had indirectly invested in six companies on its own exclusion list, including weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin and British Tobacco.

With ACC CoverPlus Extra, a self-employed contractor would get 100% of the pre-agreed compensation paid until they were fit to return to full-time work.

ACC Futures Coalition and Green Party criticize this programme because creates a conflict interest for employers to wrongly deny claims and say it should be cancelled.

The following year a threat against former chief executive Ralph Stewart led to a decision for security staff to be posted outside his home.

Another category of ACC fraudster includes widows who continued claiming payments after their (injured) partners have subsequently died.

[38] In 2011, a senior manager was convicted of dishonesty offences involving property leased to ACC by private business interests.

[39] In late 2012, Jonathan Wright, an ACC-contracted medical assessor, was convicted of dishonestly obtaining over $18,000 in falsified travel expenses from ACC.

ACC referred the matter to the police claiming Pullar had threatened to go to the media about the privacy breaches if she didn't get what she wanted.

[46] The fallout from the affair continued in May 2012, when Collins sued Labour MPs Trevor Mallard and Andrew Little for defamation over comments they made on Radio New Zealand broadcasts linking her to the leak of an email from Michelle Boag following the release of the files.

The review showed that the culture within ACC enabled its staff to target clients involved in privacy breaches and complaints rather than demonstrating respect for claimants.