Think about your street. Twenty houses. In four of them, someone's getting an ACC payment this year.

That's the reality of 1.1 million New Zealanders receiving accident compensation in 2024. Not people who had an accident once. People currently receiving income support because they're too injured to work, or can't work full hours, or need ongoing treatment. (Source: Stats NZ, taxable-income-sources)

The numbers tell a story about how we work now. In 2020, 882,000 people were on ACC. Four years later, it's 1.1 million. That's a 26% jump in people too hurt to earn their usual wage.

This isn't about a single catastrophic year. It's a steady climb. Every year since 2020, another 50,000 to 75,000 Kiwis join the ranks of people relying on accident compensation to get by. Not welfare. Not the dole. Compensation for getting hurt at work, on the road, or doing the things we do every day.

The gig economy plays a part. More couriers cycling between deliveries means more knee injuries, more shoulder problems. The ageing workforce matters too. A 55-year-old tradie takes longer to heal from a fall than a 25-year-old, and stays on ACC longer. But there's something bigger here.

We're working in ways our bodies weren't built for. Warehouse workers lifting boxes at Amazon pace. Nurses manually handling patients with inadequate equipment because the DHB budget ran out. Office workers developing carpal tunnel from years of typing without proper ergonomic setups. These aren't dramatic accidents. They're slow-motion injuries that eventually make it impossible to do the job.

ACC isn't a safety net for the unlucky few anymore. It's becoming a routine part of how New Zealand's workforce gets paid. One in five people will receive an ACC payment at some point this year. That's higher than the proportion who'll get a bonus.

And here's what makes it complicated: ACC is a success story. We have a no-fault system that catches people when they're hurt, pays them quickly, and doesn't make them sue their employer. Most countries don't have this. But the fact that usage is climbing this fast suggests the system is doing its job while the workplaces it's protecting people from are getting more dangerous, more demanding, or both.

Twenty-four years ago, in 2000, this number sat somewhere lower. We don't have that exact figure, but the trajectory since 2020 is clear. Each year, more Kiwis get hurt badly enough that they need income support to survive while they heal. And each year, fewer of them seem to be healing fast enough to get off it.