Sadly, the New South Wales government has been forced to cut back the benefits from Greenslip car insurance because scammers have been rorting the scheme and forcing annual premium costs above the seven hundred dollars mark. Originally, Greenslip was introduced because of concern that when people without assets and driving uninsured cars had an accident that left innocent people injured there was no avenue of compensation for the injured to turn to.
Contrived car accidents have now become a cottage industry and this has driven Greenslip premiums to increase by eighty five percent over ten years and now are the highest in Australia. It is common for cars loaded with passengers to have a contrived low speed collision resulting in many persons claiming soft tissue damage. This is almost impossible to disprove and many claims persist for years.
The new rules coming into force will put a six month limit on less severe motor accident injuries, cutting off the soft tissue and psychological injury claims to allow bigger payouts where serious damage has occurred. Income replacement for injuries will also face a six month safety net embargo but compensation will now extend to all drivers instead of just the " at fault " drivers. It is expected that Geenslip premiums will decrease by an average $120 a year as a result of this revision.
Rorting of benefits seems a typically Australian way of treating any form of legislation that immediately becomes an " entitlement ". It manifested itself when the concept of " sick days " first appeared in awards. Workers in industries that involved manual labour and heavy lifting often suffered muscular injuries and unions negotiated a benefit in awards in which they were entitled to a given number of sick days a year with full pay without having to provide a doctors certificate. In some union heavy instances every worker meticulously made sure they took their full quota of sick days and often this was done to a roster to ensure that a fellow worker was called in on his or her day off - and received penalty rates for that imposition. Often, that roster was carefully crafted so that every employee received the benefit of a penalty rate bonanza in their turn.
This systematic rorting of the Greenslip system is hard to fully explain. To some degree it is simply the criminal element taking advantage of what they see as " easy money " but some can be attributed to the prevalence of " under employment " in this country. The number of full time jobs has contracted and been replaced with casual work, and many can not obtain the number of hours they need to earn a comfortable living.
As an alternative, the idea of packing the wife and kids in the car and in conjunction with another family arranging a low speed car accident that delivers an almost endless array of compensation cheques is very appealing. The fact that it is almost without risk is a big incentive. Even normally honest people can be tempted if they know that others in their street are living the good life as a result of such a scam.
Unfortunately, forcing up the premium for every other motorist is not the full extent of the damage caused. That seven hundred dollar premium for car drivers is only the tip of the iceberg. The premium for taxis can cost up to nine thousand dollars a year and it is almost unimaginable when applied to the trucking industry - and those costs trickle down into the cost of goods at the supermarket and living expenses generally.
Once any benefit becomes an " entitlement " it seems to be fair game for exploitation !
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