ACC minister Iain Lees-Galloway says it would be unfair to describe ACC as a scheme designed largely for and by men.

The Accident Compensation Corporation is paying out much more to men than to women.

Huge disparities in the number of claims for sports and work-related injuries and motor vehicle accidents meant only about 37 per cent of the payouts made by ACC went to women last year, with 63 per cent going to men.

But women are also more likely to have many types of claim turned down.

The proportion of payouts women receive has risen, but only slightly, up from 35 per cent five years ago.

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Former prime minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer QC called last month for a radical expansion of ACC to cover people incapacitated by sickness and disability.

Dunedin barrister and ACC lobbyist Warren Forster labelled the current system "sexist", because it covered only injuries and not health-related problems common in female-dominant professions such as aged care, education and parts of the public service.

A Stuff reader poll indicated some support for change, with 64 per cent of 6600 votes cast in favour of extending ACC to sickness and disability, and 30 per cent against.

ACC Minister Iain Lees-Galloway said it would unfair to describe ACC as a system designed by and for men.

"Sir Geoffrey raises an interesting point and I have said I would welcome the public's response to this. However, so far the evidence I have to gauge this response is the Stuff poll and the sum total of three emails received on this issue," he said.

"So I do not believe that we have had a sufficient public response yet on this matter."

ACC paid out $462 million to men and $170m to women for sport-related claims in the year to the end of June, with the difference explained by both a higher number of claims and higher average payouts.

The data showed the number of sports-related injury claims made by women was increasing at a faster rate than for men, however, and that only about half-a-percent of claims from either gender were being rejected.

Motor-accident payouts were slightly more skewed, with payouts to men totalling $345m last year and those to women $133m. That was despite women lodging slightly more claims.

But the biggest gender difference was for work-related injuries, with men claiming almost three-quarters of the money paid out by ACC last year.

Men successfully claimed $591m and women $154m for work-related injuries last year, due mainly to the number of claims but also their size.

ACC said males and females each had the same approval-rate for sports claims (99.4 per cent), while motor vehicle claims had an approval rate of 98.7 per cent for males and 98.4 per cent for females.

That means women are almost 20 per cent more likely than men to have a vehicle-related claim turned down.

The data supplied by ACC indicated work-related claims were declined more frequently for both genders than any other type of claim, with a rejection rate of 7.6 per cent for women and 5.6 per cent for men.

ACC paid out $787m to women for all "other" claims last year, and $829m for men.

Women were about 30 per cent more likely to have those claims turned down, with a rejection rate of 3.3 per cent, versus 2.5 per cent for men.

Palmer said he had received support from many correspondents for his call for ACC's mandate to be widened but said change "takes a long time".

THE BIG PICTURE

Sports-related claim costs

$585,345,734 – up 37 per cent over 5 years

Motor vehicle-related claim costs

$479,105,170 – up 26 per cent over 5 years

Work-related claims costs

$745,783,524 – up 27 per cent over 5 years

"Other" claims costs

$1,616,230,488 – up 44 per cent over 5 years

Excludes some medical costs paid direct to providers, and GST. Some claims could be counted in more than one category.

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