National Redress Scheme

About the National Redress Scheme

The National Redress Scheme provides critical support to eligible child sexual abuse survivors who were abused while in the care of institutions, including:

• psychological counselling
• a direct personal response from the institution where the abuse occurred, and
• a monetary payment.

The scheme commenced on 1 July 2018 and will run until 30 June 2027.

The National Redress Service Charter, which was introduced on 1 September 2022, explains what you can expect from the scheme and the redress process including:

• principles that everyone who provides services as part of the scheme should follow
• commitments about what the scheme will do to support each stage of the redress journey
• service standards to create consistency and accountability for the way you are supported through the redress process
• information about how the scheme is meeting commitments
• ways you can contact the scheme.

For more information, see Service Charter for your National Redress Scheme on the scheme’s website.

The scheme is separate to the Stolen Generations Reparations Scheme.

What you can apply for

Counselling

If you accept an offer of redress, Victims Services can help you access up to 22 hours of free counselling. You may be able to apply for additional hours.

To arrange your counselling, you can:

• call Victims Services on 1800 633 063, or
• send an email to vsredress@dcj.nsw.gov.au.

The counselling you receive in an offer of redress doesn’t include the support you need to help you apply for redress.

For more information, see National Redress Scheme on the Victims Services website.

Direct personal response

A direct personal response is an opportunity for you to meet with a departmental representative of the responsible institution to:

• tell the representative about your experience, as much or as little as you wish to
• have the representative listen to you and to apologise
• ask questions and seek information from the institution
• request and hear information on what the department is now doing to ensure children are safe and the steps that are being taken to improve responses and support for survivors.

If you receive an offer of redress, you can choose to have a direct personal response. The National Redress Scheme (scheme) Direct Personal Response Information and Support service can provide you with more information and support you before, during and after your DPR. 

You can contact the service by phone on 1800 737 377 Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm and ask to speak to the scheme’s DPR Information and Support team. 

For more information, see Direct personal response fact sheet on the National Redress Scheme website.

If the responsible institution is a NSW Government institution, Victims Services can help coordinate the direct personal response.

For more information, see National Redress Scheme on the Victims Services website.

Redress payment

A redress payment is an amount of money ranging from $10,000 to $150,000.

Payments will be decided on an individual basis. The cost of your medical bills, or other items, will not be taken into account when deciding the amount of you should receive.

If you received a payment as a result of a court decision, you can’t receive a redress payment.

If you receive a redress payment, you may also be eligible for a recognition payment under the Victims Support Scheme. 

Eligibility

You can apply to the National Redress Scheme (scheme) if:

• you experienced sexual abuse when you were a child (under the age of 18) and:
  • the abuse happened before 1 July 2018, and
  • an institution was responsible for bringing you into contact with the person who abused you
• you were born before 30 June 2010, and
• you are an Australian citizen or permanent resident unless an exception applies to you as a former child migrant.

You can still apply for a redress payment if you have received reparations under the Stolen Generations Reparations Scheme. The schemes are separate.

From 4 April 2024, you can apply for redress from gaol.

You can't apply to the scheme if you:

• did not suffer sexual abuse
• received and accepted an offer for redress through the National Redress Scheme
• received a court-ordered payment from the institution.

For more information, see Who can apply? on the National Redress Scheme website.

Participating institutions

To apply for redress, the responsible institution must be participating in the scheme.

You can find out if an institution has joined the scheme:

• by checking the Search for institutions that have joined the Scheme page on the National Redress Scheme website
• by calling the scheme.

If the institution has joined the scheme, they may be referred to as a 'Participating Institution'.

If the institution has not taken all the required steps to join, the National Redress Scheme (scheme) will not be able to assess your application. If the institution is not participating in the scheme, you can choose to have your application reassessed when that institution later joins the scheme.

The scheme will get in contact with you to acknowledge that they have received your application and provide initial guidance on the process. This guidance may include information about whether the institution has fully joined the scheme.

For more information, see Institutions on the National Redress Scheme website.

If you can't remember the name of the institution, you may still be able to apply. Once the scheme receives your application, they will get in contact with you to go through some of your options.

Serious criminal convictions

If you have a serious criminal conviction, you will need to go through a special assessment process before you can be eligible to access redress.

You have a serious criminal conviction if you were:

• sentenced to five years imprisonment or more for unlawful killing, a sexual offence, a terrorism offence or an offence that is substantially similar to a terrorism offence, or
• sentenced to five years imprisonment or more and the Scheme Operator decides you should undergo a special assessment.

You need to complete a Serious Criminal Convictions Additional Information Form. 

For more information, see Serious criminal convictions on the National Redress Scheme website.  

How to apply

You can apply for the scheme:

• online through MyGov, or
• in writing, by downloading a copy of the Application for Redress form.

You can also call the scheme to get a copy of the application sent to you.

You can get a blank copy of this form from the Application pack page on the National Redress Scheme website.

You will need to confirm your identity to have your application processed. To do this, you need to take your original identity documents to a Services Australia service centre. You can find your nearest service centre on the Find us page on the Services Australia website.

For more information, see Start or continue an application on the National Redress Scheme website.

If your contact details change, it is important that you notify the scheme so that you can be contacted about your application.

You can withdraw your application at any time before a decision is made. If you withdraw your application, you can make a new application to the Scheme.

Nominate your representative

You can nominate someone to act on your behalf with the National Redress Scheme. This can include a family member, friend, Power of Attorney, Guardian, Financial Manager/Administrator or Centrelink Nominee.

You should pick someone that you comfortable talking to about your experience of institutional child sexual abuse and related non-sexual abuse.

This person or organisation must agree to act on your behalf and be in Australia.

There are two types of representatives:

• assistance representatives – who can help you to complete forms, communicate with the scheme and ask questions about your application, and receive correspondence.
• Legal representatives – who can do anything you can do.

Assistance representatives can’t apply for redress or respond to an offer on your behalf.

You can have a representative the whole time you are dealing with the scheme, or you can specify a timeframe for them to represent you.

You need to complete:

• a Redress Nominee Form.

You can get a copy of this form from the Application pack page on the National Redress Scheme website.

If you are in gaol, you may want to nominate a representative to act on your behalf with the scheme.

Changing your representative

You can change your assistance representative. To discuss changing your representative, you should call 1800 737 777.

A legal representative can only be changed if:

• your legal arrangements change
• your representative requests a change, or
• the scheme decides to change the arrangement, for example, if your representative doesn’t follow the rules. 

Help to apply

Knowmore is a free and confidential legal advice service that provides information and advice to survivors of institutional child sexual abuse about:

• the National Redress Scheme
• victims of crime applications
• other legal issues, including finding your records and civil law claims
• referrals to other support services.

It has lawyers, counsellors, financial counsellors, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers that can help you.

You can contact Knowmore by:

• phone, on 1800 605 762 between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday
• calling the National Relay Service on 1800 555 727
• email, to info@knowmore.org.au
• online, by filling out the contact form on the Contact us page of the Knowmore website.

The decision

When your application is received, the National Redress Scheme team will give you a call to let you know they have it. They may also ask you for more information if they need it.

An Independent Decision Maker (IDM) will then consider your Application for Redress. The IDM considers all the information provided in your application and information supplied by the institution. You can provide more information or change your application up until a determination is made by the IDM. The assessment can take up to 12 months.

Each application is considered on an individual basis.

If the IDM decides that the events are likely to have happened, then an offer of redress will be made. The National Redress Scheme will call you and send you a letter about the outcome of your application, which explains:

• what you are entitled to
• how to accept or decline the offer
• how to request an extension to accept or seek a review of the decision.

Any earlier payments made in recognition of your sexual abuse will be deducted from the redress offer, which may have included payments under other redress schemes, victims of crime schemes and out of court settlements.

For more information, see What happens next? on the National Redress Scheme website.

Advanced payment

If you are terminally ill or elderly, your application can be actioned quickly so you can receive redress as soon as possible.

The scheme may offer an advance payment of redress for some elderly or terminally ill applicants. You do not need to ask for this payment, the scheme will contact you if you are eligible.

Responding to an offer

If you receive an offer, you can accept any or all of the things offered to you, or you can ask for a review within six months of the date of the offer.

You can ask for more time to decide by calling the scheme. If you do ask for more time, the review period will also be extended.

The scheme will contact you when you have 30 days left to accept an offer, to see if you need more time.

If you accept an offer of redress, you have to sign a legally binding agreement that you won’t take any further civil action against the responsible institution, it's officials and any institutions associated with it. This means you will no longer have the right to take further legal action against the institution, such as seeking compensation or taking the institution to court, for matters relating to the sexual abuse you may have suffered. This does not include the people that abused you.

For more information, see What happens next? on the National Redress Scheme website.

Apply for a review

You have six months from the date of the outcome to accept, decline or seek a review of the outcome.

If you are not happy with the outcome, you can ask for a review. You will need to fill out an Application for Review of Determination form. You can provide new information and supporting documents with your completed form to help show why a different decision should have been made.

If you ask for a review, another Independent Decision Maker will consider your application. When completing the review, they can consider:

• the information and documents available to the person who decided your original application
• any new information and supporting documents that you provide with your application for a review
• any additional information they request from you
• any additional information they request from the institution.  

A redress offer can’t be less than the amount of the original offer. You will be notified of the outcome by phone and in writing. You can choose to accept or decline your review offer.

If your offer is the same, you have two months to accept or decline the offer. If your offer changes, you have six months to accept or decline the offer and the previous offer will be withdrawn. You can ask for an extension if you need more time.

For more information, see What happens next? on the National Redress Scheme website.

Centrelink, NDIS and child support

If you receive a payment under the National Redress Scheme this may affect your Centrelink Benefits. You are legally required to notify Centrelink within 14 days of receiving the payment.

It will not affect your eligibility for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

Your payment can’t be taken and used to pay any child support debts that you owe. However, it can be included in a child support assessment, and you may have to pay more child support.

Payments under the scheme are not taxable, so you don’t have to declare them in your tax return.

If you need help managing your money, you should get advice from a financial adviser. For more information, see Financial advice on the Moneysmart website.

You can also get free and confidential information to help you manage your finances from the Financial Information Service.

For more information, see Financial Information Service on the Services Australia website.

Social housing

If you receive a payment under the National Redress Scheme this will not affect your eligibility for social housing. However, any interest you earn on the money you received may affect your rent payable calculations and you may have to pay a higher amount of rent.

If you have received a payment under the scheme and you are living in social housing, you should get urgent legal advice.

Outstanding debts and fines

If you receive a payment under the National Redress Scheme, it can’t be used to repay debts owing to the NSW or Commonwealth Governments, including Centrelink debts, HECS/HELP debts, taxation debts, and infringements.

However, if you owe debts to other non-government organisations, they may take legal action against you to recover the debt from your payment.

If you are bankrupt, a redress payment will be exempt from creditors.

If you need help to manage your debts, you can get free and confidential financial counselling from the National Debt Helpline.

If you have an outstanding fine, Revenue NSW may put your fine on hold or write off your fine. You can give permission to the National Redress Scheme to contact Revenue NSW on your behalf or speak to an advocate at Revenue NSW.

If you owe money to a business or organisation and have received a payment under the National Redress Scheme, you should get urgent legal advice.

Settlement agreements

Abuse in custody

If you experienced child abuse while you were in custody (prison), you can apply to the court for compensation. You can do this even if you previously agreed to a settlement or applied to the Court. If it is fair and reasonable, the Court may decide to set aside the earlier settlement or judgment.

Setting aside an agreement

If you entered into a settlement agreement about child sexual abuse, you may be able to apply to the Court to set aside the agreement where, at the time the settlement was made, there were certain legal barriers that stopped you from being able to get fair compensation.

This includes:

• if a statute of limitations applied at the time of your settlement and you were outside that time limit to apply
• if you were abused as a child while in prison and the law at the time did not allow you to make a claim.

The Court can set aside:

• a contract, deed or other agreement
• an order of the court (in some cases).

It can’t set aside:

• a deed of release where you accepted an offer under the National Redress Scheme, or
• an agreement that settled a cross-claim between 2 or more defendants, or where one defendant indemnified (paid) another defendant
• a contract of insurance.

The Court can set aside earlier court judgments made before the law changed.

When the Court is deciding whether or not to set aside any settlement or order, the Court can consider:

• the amount of compensation agreed on
• the bargaining position of the parties
• the conduct of the parties during settlement other than the person making the application, and of the lawyers other than the lawyers of the person making the application.

Having a settlement set aside means that it no longer applies to you, and the Court can make an order for you to be paid a higher amount of compensation.