By Paloma Migone of NZPA

Wellington, Nov 26 NZPA - The proposed ACC threshold on hearing loss due to injury is a travesty of justice, Hearing Association National spokesman John Harwood said.

The association was among advocacy groups appearing at Parliament's industrial relations committee meeting today to oppose the 6 percent hearing loss threshold.

Mr Harwood suffered from hearing loss while training for the army and during his work as a farmer.

"For years I didn't hear the birds," he said.

People with less than a 6 percent hearing loss suffered from 50 percent hearing loss of high pitches, New Zealand Audiological Society president Lesley Hindmarsh said.

"It impacts on a person's ability to hear consonants ... and speech's meaning and its clarity.

"People with this loss do not hear high pitch environmental sounds either and often they will experience ringing in their ears."

The threshold could affect people's employment, they could become depressed and frustrated, which could all lead to them opting out socially, she said.

ACC changes would shift decisions on hearing rehabilitation from medical professionals to bureaucrats , National Foundation for the Deaf advocacy project manager Chris Peters said.

"We have a decision being made about a person's hearing injury by someone sitting in an office who has come up with a formula, and knows nothing about the individual that the health professional is seeing."

More than 90 percent of people seeking hearing aids are male, 58 percent are 60 years old or older and the average age of claimants is 70.

Thus the changes would have a bigger effect on the elderly, Ms Hindmash said.

Hearing loss due to age is not covered under ACC. When calculating hearing loss, a further deduction is placed for age. As a person aged this percentage becomes greater , meaning they could end up with a higher than 6 percent hearing loss, but not be covered.

"There is no room for discretion based on individual need," Ms Hindmash said.

"New claimants or older claimants who are seeking re-aiding and when their age increases, they are going to be cut out of the scheme .

"This is unfair if they have suffered injury at work in their past working lives."

ACC currently denied 42 percent of hearing loss claims, saving about $3-4 million a year.

"But if the interest is to save money. The industry has already entered into a ground-breaking agreement," Ms Hindmarsh said.

The agreement, which started in 2007, was between the ACC, the Hearing Aid Manufacturing Association and the New Zealand Audiological Society.

According to the society, $10 million has been saved in the past 18 months, with prices for hearing aids reduced by $500.

Also, the costs ACC would be saving with the threshold would be transferred to the Ministry of Health or possibly other departments, argued Ms Hindmarsh.

"It is estimated that this cost shifting from ACC to the Ministry of Health is between $3-5 million."

Mr Peters said the ministry's scheme was under extreme stress and current wait times were more than a year , which would increase with ACC changes.

ACC Minister Nick Smith said yesterday the changes were made to define the extent of the scheme. "A scheme with no limits is unaffordable."

"The advice that I have received is that the 6 percent limit is a reasonable limit to the point where a hearing aid actually becomes useful."