Proposed ‘No-fault’ RABS Disastrous for South Africans
Cape Town, 18th September, 2017 – The proposed ‘no fault’ public insurance Road Accident Benefit Scheme (RABS) bill that is now before parliament as a replacement for the current Road Accident Fund (RAF) will be a disaster for South Africans with regard to greatly reducing the compensation provided to road accident victims and their dependants.
This is according to Kirstie Haslam, partner at DSC Attorneys, who has been actively involved in parliamentary debate surrounding the new system, which she says, is fraught with problems.
The RAF currently compensates road accident victims who’ve been seriously injured due to accidents that they weren’t fully responsible for causing. In contrast, RABS is intended to be a “no-fault” system providing compensation to all individuals seriously injured in road accidents, regardless of whether those individuals were responsible for the accidents.
She says that this will result in drunk and negligent drivers who cause death or serious injury of other motorists, passengers, cyclists or pedestrians receiving benefits at the expense of the truly innocent accident victims (who will receive significantly reduced benefits, if at all).
Despite RAF saying that the new system will allow expanded access to much needed benefits to road users especially lower income groups – Haslam says that the new RABS administrative process is set to exclude the poor.
“This principally relates to the intricate and cumbersome administrative procedures which claiming under RABS will involve,” she adds. “People with means will still be able to approach and afford legal representation to assist them with this, those who are poor or without means will be unable to afford such assistance and will literally be at the mercy of “the system” with RABS administrators acting as judge, jury and executioner.”
Compounding the problem is the increase in road accidents. The AA recently reported that the South African national death toll will probably be the same, or worse, for 2017 (14 071 people died on local roads in 2016 according to South Africa’s Road Traffic Management Corporation). “Clearly the emphasis should shift to better enforcement of traffic laws etc. and other measures like the new driver demerit system, to reduce the number of accidents and injuries/fatalities,” she says.
She continues: “To my mind, with the inevitable increase in claims the fuel levy which funds the system would increase substantially, with road accident victims receiving significantly lower benefits.
“It will be a genuine case of David versus Goliath in dealing with the bureaucracy of RABS single-handedly and in many instances the onus will be on the victim to take certain steps timeously, without the benefit of legal representation.”
She adds: “It’s proposed that the RABS administration will be entitled to take up to 180 days to accept or reject a claim, and claimants will not necessarily be informed if their claims are rejected. This means that claimants will need to keep track of the time that has passed since their claims were filed. In addition, all appeals for rejected claims must be made to the RABS administration – the same body that rejected the claims in the first place.”
However, Haslam says that most concerning, is that it is proposed that benefits payments for all beneficiaries of RABS will cease after 15 years; when the injured party returns to work; or when the injured party reaches the age of 60 – whichever comes first, after which they will be expected to turn to other social welfare benefits such as disability grants, for ongoing support.
“This means that compensation for road accident victims suffering life-long consequences of their injuries will be terminated, regardless of the continuing impacts of their injuries or their continuing need for support.”
In addition, loss of support payments made to the spouse of a deceased breadwinner will cease when the spouse reaches the age of 60 years.
The RABS administration will also reserve the right to stipulate the nature of the medical treatment that every injured individual receives, and to specify which healthcare providers can be used.
It’s also proposed that if the spouse of the injured or deceased individual is employed their own income will be deducted from the compensation awarded for loss of support, regardless of the actual financial loss.
She adds: “Under the proposed RABS, claimants won’t receive lump sum payments. Accordingly, most won’t be able to cover the cost of hiring attorneys to assist with their claims. This is likely to result in the rejection of otherwise valid claims, and will deprive individuals of options for enforcing their right to compensation.”
The Department of Transport has vehemently defended its decision to implement RABS. However, Haslam says that as matters currently stand it is highly unlikely that RABS would come into effect any time before 2019/2020 at the earliest.
“The Bill is fraught with numerous problems which have been identified and which the Portfolio Committee on Transport is currently awaiting feedback on,” says Haslam.
Via: DSC Attorneys