FAQs

Rapid payments that have settled are eligible for a top-up payment.

If you received multiple payments, a top-up payment of 50 per cent will be applied on the total combined payment. This includes situations where a survivor may have received separate payments from different government redress agencies.

No, only living survivors can register and receive a top-up payment.

You will receive a 50 per cent increase to whatever payment you previously received in your original claim. Closed claims made by the Crown Health Financing Agency or Ministry of Health will be dealt with a bit differently as payments have historically been lower than those of other agencies. These claimants will first have their claims adjusted to bring them into line with other redress agencies before the 50 per cent calculation is applied.

Once a registration is received, there are six simple steps for agencies to go through for top-up payments to be made. The steps are:

Step 1: conduct eligibility assessment, this includes identity verification

Step 2: calculate entitlement (including calculating top-up level based on different situations, such as multiple payments from multiple claims)

Step 3: approval of ex gratia payment through internal agency process

Step 4: provide a letter informing the survivor of the payment amount and asking them to provide bank verification information if not already obtained

Step 5: receive a confirmation from the survivor that they want to proceed with the top-up along with their bank verification if not already obtained

Step 6: make the payment, and confirm to the survivor the payment has been made

How long a registration takes will depend on which redress agency is processing the payment. Each redress agency has a different number of registrations to process. Therefore, depending on which agency is processing the registration there may be a wait before processing can begin.

When a staff member is ready to begin processing a registration, they will contact the survivor and will talk to them about timeframes for their payment.

Redress agencies have begun making top-up payments and expect further payments to be made over the coming weeks.

If a claim has been settled previously without a financial payment for your time in care, then we aren’t able to proceed with a top-up payment. Along with meeting the eligibility criteria, a payment must have occurred. However, if you have concerns that you should have received a payment for your claim, you are welcome to contact the agency you were originally working with to check your eligibility.

If you have a current claim with an agency, please keep working with that agency. Agencies are working on a common payment framework which will provide the same redress for similar experiences of abuse. In the interim, until this framework is implemented, survivors will have a choice:

• accept an offer that includes an adjustment to reflect Ministers' decisions to increase redress payments, or
• wait for implementation of the common payment framework and receive an offer determined using this framework

A clear disparity was identified between Ministry of Health and Crown Health Financing Agency payments when compared to payments made by the other agencies.

Payments made by the Crown Health Financing Agency or Ministry of Health have historically been lower than those of other agencies and require an additional adjustment to meet the average payment of approximately $30,000 across the redress agencies.

Payments made by the Ministry of Education have been relatively comparable with payments made by the other agencies when considering the experiences of the survivor, and do not require the additional adjustment to meet the average payment of approximately $30,000 across the redress agencies.