New Zealand’s Earthquake Commission (EQC) has revised the number of open claims it is working to settle after upgrading its claims management system.

CEO Sid Miller says an additional 949 claims were not previously included in EQC’s reporting. “This brings the total number of claims to resolve as at May 10 to 3617,” he said.

Mr Miller says although they were not captured in reporting, the claims have been actively managed.

“Eighty per cent of the additional claims have had activity on them this year and I can assure all our customers that their claims will be settled.”

The previously unreported claims were discovered while data was being transferred to its upgraded claims management system.

“We are disappointed to find that we have under-reported our claim numbers,” Mr Miller said. “The fact this error has occurred is frustrating and further demonstrates the need for us to continue improving our reporting processes.

“We can confirm that no remedial requests or claims were lost and there has been no slowdown in the rate at which we are resolving remedial requests because of this issue. So far this year, we have settled more than 2000 claims.”

The EQC has commissioned KPMG to complete an independent review of data.