What happens next

Redress is about recognising the harm done to people who experienced sexual abuse as children and holding the institutions responsible to account.

After you have submitted your application for redress, you will receive a call to let you know your application has been received. The institution will be contacted, and you may be asked for more information.

Then an Independent Decision Maker will consider your application for redress. The assessment may take some time to complete. The average time to process an application is 12 months, but may take longer, because each person’s circumstances are different.

You can learn more about what you can do while your application is being considered, and what to do after you have received an offer of redress:

• Waiting while your application is considered by an Independent Decision Maker
• Receiving the offer letter
• Deciding on whether to accept or decline an offer
• Asking for a review

If you would rather chat to someone than read this website you can call the National Redress Scheme on 1800 737 377 Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm AET (call charges may apply).

Waiting while your application is considered by an Independent Decision Maker

An Independent Decision Maker will consider your application. They are highly experienced people from a range of backgrounds.

The National Redress Scheme provides support to the Independent Decision Maker by:

• keeping your information safe.
• asking you for more information when needed.
• sending some information from your application to the institution. The application explains what information will be shared with the institution. They will send your name, date of birth and the description of the abuse and with your consent, its impact.
• asking the institution(s) relevant to your application for more information, including their records of the time you were there or if you have received a prior payment. Institution(s) have 8 weeks to provide this information to the National Redress Scheme. If you are ill or elderly they will have 4 weeks to respond.
• contacting the Police or child protection authorities if they believe there is a risk of ongoing abuse, based on the information in your application. Someone from the National Redress Scheme will contact you to let you know if there is a need to report the abuse.

The Independent Decision Maker is the person that decides if a person can access redress under the National Redress Scheme, and if so, what redress the institution(s) needs to make. To do this, the Independent Decision Maker considers all the information provided in your application and by the institution(s). If they determine that the events are likely to have happened, then an offer of redress will be made.

The time to assess each application will be different, depending on the circumstances.

While your application is being considered, please contact the National Redress Scheme on 1800 737 377 if:

• your contact details change
• you want to add more information or change your application — you can do this at any time up until the Independent Decision Maker makes a determination on your application

You can withdraw your application any time up until a determination on your application is made.

Receiving the offer letter

The National Redress Scheme will call you and send you a letter about the outcome of your application. If your application for redress is approved, you will receive an offer letter. The offer letter will:

• explain the 3 components of redress: counselling, a redress payment and a direct personal response.
• specify the amount of redress payment.
• explain if you will receive access to counselling and psychological services, or a payment to allow you to access those services privately (and if so, the amount of that payment).
• specify the participating institution(s) found responsible for providing redress.
• specify if any responsible institution(s) is part of a participating group, and if so, who their associates are.
• explain how the direct personal response from the institution(s) can be arranged (if you wish to do this). When you are ready you can contact the institution(s) to begin the direct personal response process. You can request this at any time during the life of the Scheme.
• explain the effect of accepting an offer, that is, that you will be releasing responsible participating institution(s), their officials, and any associates, from civil liability.
• give information about free and confidential legal and financial services that can help you consider the offer.
• explain how to accept or decline the offer, request an extension to the acceptance period, or seek a review of the decision.
• provide the date when you need to tell the National Redress Scheme about your decision to accept or decline the offer.

Deciding whether to accept or decline an offer

The National Redress Scheme will call you and send you a letter about the outcome of your application.

Accepting an offer

To accept an offer of redress, you or your legal nominee need to sign, date and return the acceptance document to the National Redress Scheme. This needs to be done within 6 months of the date on the offer letter. You can ask for more time to decide by calling the National Redress Scheme on 1800 737 377 Mon to Fri 8am - 5pm AET. If you do ask for more time, the review period will also be extended.

The National Redress Scheme will contact you when you have 30 days left to accept an offer, to see if you need more time. The acceptance document will:

• say which parts of the offer you want, and
• have a legally binding agreement saying that you will take no further civil action against the responsible institution, its officials and any institutions it is associated with. This does not include the person or people that abused you.

It is recommended that you get free and confidential legal advice from knowmore before signing the acceptance document. This service will help you understand the options available to you. You can contact knowmore on 1800 605 762 or by visiting the knowmore website.

When you accept the offer of a redress payment, you will also be asked to complete a ‘Redress Payment Choice form’ that is sent with your offer letter. You will be asked to provide details of a bank account in your name. You can choose to be paid your redress payment to your nominated bank account either as:

• a single lump sum,
• by instalments, or
• a combination of both - an upfront lump sum, with the remainder paid by instalments.

When the National Redress Scheme receives the signed and dated Acceptance Document, it will write to you to confirm your redress payment is made into the nominated bank account. This letter will also include:

• contact information for counselling and psychological care if you accept this redress component, and
• contact information for each relevant responsible institution who will deliver your direct personal response. You will need to contact the institution when you are ready to start the process. If you chose to receive payments by instalments, the letter will also include a schedule of when redress payments will be made.

How do I get an extension for the acceptance period?

You need to contact the National Redress Scheme if you require more time to decide because of exceptional circumstances. Exceptional circumstances include:

• you are very ill during the acceptance period
• you live in a remote community where there has been a delay in transit of letters.

You cannot ask for an extension after the 6 months period has ended.

Declining an offer

You can decline an offer by filling in and returning to the National Redress Scheme, the ‘Declining the offer of redress form’, or you can do nothing.

If the National Redress Scheme does not hear from you within the 6 month acceptance period, it will assume that you have declined your offer.

If you decline your offer you will not be able to apply to the National Redress Scheme again.

If you decline your offer and received an advance payment, that amount will have to be paid back to the Government.

Asking for a review

If you do not agree with the outcome you can request a review. You can only ask for a review by filling in the ‘Application for Review of Determination form’ sent to you with your outcome letter. You can also download a copy of the Application for Review of Determination form. The National Redress Scheme cannot accept a request for a review made over the phone.

As part of your Application for Review of Determination form you can provide additional information and documents to the Scheme.

A different Independent Decision Maker from the one who made the original decision will do the review. The new Independent Decision Maker is called a reviewer. The reviewer may keep the original decision or make a new decision.

A redress offer cannot be reduced where the reviewer has the same information and documents that were available to the original IDM. A review determination can still be adjusted to account for additional information and documents that were not available at the time of the original decision. A review may also result in a different decision about your eligibility. If you were previously ineligible, the review may also find you eligible.

The National Redress Scheme will call you to let you know the outcome of your review before it is finalised in writing. During this call, or at anytime before you accept or decline your review offer, you can withdraw your request for a review. If this occurs, the review determination is taken never to have been made, and you will still be able to accept or decline your original offer.

When the National Redress Scheme writes to you with your review outcome:

• If your offer stays the same, you will have 2 months to accept or decline the offer.
• If your offer changes, you will have 6 months to either accept or decline your offer and the previous offer will be withdrawn. 
• If you need more time, you can request an extension.

Institutions cannot request a review of redress decisions.