Office of the Nominal Defendant of the ACT

The Organisation

The ACT Insurance Authority is the Office of the Nominal Defendant of the ACT (the Fund) as defined under Section 13 of the Road Transport (Third Party Insurance) Act 2008.

The objectives of the Fund are to:

  • provide a safety net mechanism to meet the costs of third party personal injury claims made by injured parties where:
    • the vehicle involved does not have a compulsory third party (CTP) insurance policy; or
    • the injured person is unable to identify the driver and vehicle at fault;
  • ensure that persons, who are injured in the circumstances listed above, receive the same entitlements as an injured person would receive where the vehicle did have CTP insurance;
  • collect recoveries from uninsured drivers at fault to the sum paid out by the Fund; and
  • receipt levies collected from each licensed CTP insurer in the Territory as well as the Commonwealth and ACT Governments.

Claims are managed within the auspices of the Road Transport (Third Party) Insurance Act 2008, and the Fund meets the cost of all legislated entitlements for injured people including medical expenses, rehabilitation costs, and lump sum settlements.

Finance

Revenue

Total income recognised by the Fund during the year amounted to $8.41 million.

The CTP regulator imposes a levy on licensed insurers and recognised self insurers to meet the cost of nominal defendant claims in accordance with the Road Transport (Third Party Insurance) Act 2008.

The amount required to meet the cost of nominal defendant claims is apportioned among the insurers having regard to the amount of third party premium income received. Funds are transferred to the Fund on a quarterly basis.

In addition, revenue is received by the Fund from the following sources:

  • any penalties or penalty interest imposed under the Act;
  • amounts recovered by the Fund;
  • unregistered Vehicle Permits liability contributions to fund cost of nominal defendant claims in relation to unregistered vehicle permits;
  • interest accruing from the investments; and
  • unregistered vehicle fines liability contributions to assist in the funding of the cost of nominal defendant claims.

The following table details funds received as other revenue during the period totalling $1.82 million.

Source

Amount

Unregistered Vehicle Permits

$567,317

Unregistered Vehicle Fines

$384,414

Insured Recoveries

$769,287

Uninsured owners & drivers

$101,152

Total

$1,822,170

Expenses

The total expenses paid by the Fund during the year was $9.48 million.

The total claims expense for the reporting period was $8.66 million.

Equity

The Fund had total assets of $29.71 million and liabilities of $31.24 million.

As at 30 June 2017 the total equity of the Fund was ($1.53) million.

Claims

During the reporting period the Fund received 51new claims.

There are 128 open claims remaining as at 30 June 2017 with a combined total provision for outstanding claims of $31.01 million.

Of the 128 open claims, unidentified vehicles account for 36 per cent, unregistered and uninsured vehicles for 59 per cent and five per cent are related to unregistered vehicle permits.

Debtor Recoveries

There are currently 37 ‘recovery only’ claim files open. These files are claims that have either settled or been finalised and the Fund is pursuing recovery from unregistered vehicle owners and the drivers of unregistered vehicles responsible for the accident.

Where the Fund has made payments on a claim involving an uninsured motor vehicle, attempts are made to recover the cost of those payments from the owner or driver concerned.

Recovery prospects are poor in the majority of matters as often it is difficult to identify or locate the driver/owner and when located, generally they do not have the capacity to repay any/all of the costs incurred.

The Office of the Nominal Defendant of the ACT financial statements are reported in Volume 2 of the 2016-17 Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate Annual Report.

Claims Frequency and Vehicle Registrations

The Australian Capital Territory has 286,808 registered vehicles.

During the reporting period there were approximately 0.17 claims per 1,000 vehicles registered.

A comparison between the number of vehicles registered and the number of claims made to the Fund is shown in the following table.

Claim frequency and vehicle registrations

A comparison between the number of vehicles registered and the number of claims made to the Fund.

Source: Nominal Defendant Liability Valuation Report as at 30 June 2017 produced by KPMG Actuarial.

Note:

  1. The vehicle registrations for 2017 are sourced from Road User Services ACT, and other years from previous actuarial reports.
  2. Claim frequency refers to number of road incidents giving rise to a claim, whether one or more claimants. The measure is expressed per thousand vehicles registered.

Average Claims Size and Cost Per Policy

A comparison between the average size of a claim and the cost of a CTP policy is shown in the following table. The average claim size in the period was $0.184 million while the average CTP Claim per policy cost was $31.28.

Average claim size and cost per policy by accident year (inflated and undiscounted)

A comparison between the average size of a claim and the cost of a CTP policy.

Source: Nominal Defendant Liability Valuation Report as at 30 June 2017 produced by KPMG Actuarial.

Note:

  1. Average claim size and Cost Per Policy are in expected payment date values, but without allowance for time value of money (i.e. present value discounting), and are gross of all recoveries.
  2. The historical data component is sourced from previous actuarial reports.

Further information may be obtained from

John Fletcher
General Manager
ACT Insurance Authority
+61 2 6207 0268
john.fletcher@act.gov.au