5 fast facts – Commonwealth Redress Scheme for Institutional Abuse

The Commonwealth Redress Scheme for Survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse is proposed to provide survivors with an individual monetary payment of up to $150,000, as well as psychological counselling. If requested, a direct personal response from the responsible institution can also be sought. The Scheme will be of most benefit to those who do not already have compensation entitlements through current claims processes, as many survivors presently do. Applications for redress under the Scheme will be open to survivors of abuse in Commonwealth institutions from July 2018. The Scheme will extend to State, Territory and non-government (eg church) institutions only once those entities opt in to the Scheme. Until then the Scheme will only cover Commonwealth institutions. Survivors may already have valuable compensation entitlements that they can access now through existing claims processes.