Wellington, Dec 10 NZPA - Government proposals to slash ACC payments for hearing loss are an attack on the elderly, an advocate for the deaf says.

Under changes reported in The Dominion Post today, ACC would pay only the proportion of a claimant's hearing loss that was attributed to an injury.

If a person had 10 percent hearing loss due to injury and 10 percent due to non-injury-related loss, ACC would pay only 50 percent of their costs.

ACC Minister Nick Smith has taken the proposals to Cabinet. Elderly sufferers would be hurt most, National Foundation for the Deaf advocacy project manager Chris Peters told NZPA.

"It's going to be a big blow, particularly to older people...they are going to find it very hard to make up the difference between the limited funding they will get from ACC, and the huge amount of cost they will have to find for themselves."

In many cases hearing specialists could not determine the level of hearing loss that could be attributed to injury, as opposed to ageing, he said.

He cited the example of one sufferer who had 27.8 percent hearing loss -- which specialists diagnosed as 1.5 percent age-induced; 5 percent noise-induced and 21 percent "don't know".

"ACC will leave you with 5 percent they say is injury-related, and you to pay the rest -- with limited discretionary incomes, like you get on pensions, it is going to be hugely difficult for them.

"We've got guys who've worked for years in mining, and we've got the specialists saying this level of hearing loss is noise-related, but we don't know the rest of it."

Hearing aids could cost from $1200 upward, with specialist treatment about $1000 -- leaving a standard all up bill in excess of $3000. As a rule, insurance companies did not cover hearing aids.

Studies showed the elderly dropped their medical insurance when money got tight, so Mr Peters feared the ACC proposals would cause older people to abandon plans to get hearing aids.

Aids gave those with hearing loss the chance to live functional lives, he said.

Under the proposals they could lose that chance, or face long delays going through the Health Ministry system.

The proposals come on top of a move to set a threshold of 6 percent hearing loss due to injury before a claim can be considered.

Officials estimated that with the threshold in place the new rule would generate savings of $75.8 million next year for ACC, rising to $80.6 million by 2013-14, The Dominion Post reported.

A spokesman for Dr Smith said hearing loss claims rose 49 percent from $43.69 million in 2005 to $65.02 million this year compared to inflation of 12 percent over the same period.

ACC costs were going up because more people were claiming, Mr Peters said.

Audiologists' charges more hadn't risen in eight years, and costs of hearing aids were falling.

"The costs to ACC per person are actually coming down -- if ACC want to save money they should put in effective prevention programmes, instead of attacking the elderly in this fashion."

Thresholds were common in accident insurance schemes, and were set at 6 percent in New South Wales and in Canberra.

Labour ACC spokesman David Parker said the papers were further proof hard-working, lower-income families and other vulnerable people would be hardest hit by these changes. The costs would be shifted from ACC to individuals and health.

"National's so-called 'change of focus from welfare agency to injury risk manager' is just code for taking accident compensation off hard-working New Zealanders when they have an accident."