Business · Companies · 1 hr ago
NRMA repays 400 NSW accident victims after miscalculating benefits
NRMA Insurance has repaid about 400 people injured in road accidents in New South Wales after miscalculating some of their benefits.
The payments are part of the state’s compulsory third-party insurance scheme, which provides income support to people unable to work because of an accident.
The insurer is meant to adjust weekly benefits twice a year in line with average weekly earnings, but its system did not apply the adjustments correctly in some cases.
NRMA said the average affected person was underpaid $940, and that it had paid the shortfalls and interest.
A lawyer first noticed the problem while checking a client’s payments; neither the insurer nor the state regulator had detected it earlier.
NRMA initially estimated about 700 people were affected, then revised the figure to 400, and said it had found another group that may be owed interest on earlier lump-sum payments.
The repayment follows earlier cases in which the regulator censured NRMA over underpayments and delays, but imposed no fines.
NRMA Insurance is repaying 400 people injured in NSW motor vehicle accidents after miscalculating some compulsory third party benefits.
The error affected weekly payments that should have been adjusted twice a year in line with average weekly earnings.
A lawyer noticed the mistake after checking a client’s payments, and the insurer said the average affected claimant was underpaid $940.
NRMA said it corrected the error, repaid affected customers with interest and apologised.
Greens MP Abigail Boyd criticised the insurer for failing to detect the problem itself.
- Who
- NRMA Insurance and 400 people injured in NSW motor vehicle accidents.
- What
- The insurer miscalculated some CTP benefits and repaid affected customers with interest.
- When
- The error affected payments since 2019. NRMA said it became aware of the issue in late April 2026.
- Where
- New South Wales, Australia.
- Why
- NRMA said its system incorrectly applied indexation to some weekly benefit payments.
NRMA Insurance
Abigail Boyd
Responsibility for detecting the error
NRMA Insurance
NRMA said a customer's legal representative alerted it to a possible problem.
Abigail Boyd
Boyd said it was extraordinary that NRMA did not discover the issue itself.
Payment systems
NRMA Insurance
NRMA said it corrected the system error and repaid customers with interest.
Abigail Boyd
Boyd said a multi-billion-dollar company should have an automated system to index payments correctly.
It actually blows my mind
I don't understand how this multi-billion dollar company doesn't have that automated system in place.
Our investigation confirmed an error in the application of indexation in our system, which has been corrected.
NRMA Insurance incorrectly calculated some CTP benefits.
SIRA issued NRMA Insurance a letter of censure after finding it had underpaid more than 2,000 customers.
SIRA issued another censure letter over late processing of weekly benefits.
SIRA sent NRMA Insurance another censure letter over delays in starting weekly payments.
NRMA said a customer's legal representative alerted it to a possible indexation error.
NRMA said it had completed repayments to affected customers, with interest.
- Affected customers
- 400
- Average underpayment
- $940 per affected claimant
- Payment adjustment schedule
- Twice a year
- Earlier underpayment case
- More than 2,000 customers
- Earlier repayment
- More than $735,000
Sources
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