Victoria Legal Aid Handbook for Lawyers

Further to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the National Redress Scheme (the Scheme) was established to provide support to people who experienced institutional child sexual abuse.

The Scheme commenced on 1 July 2018 and will run for 10 years. Redress payments are decided on an individual basis and can be up to $150,000. The Scheme is an alternative to seeking compensation through the courts.

Our assessment of payments received under the Scheme

Our organisation has discretion to exempt redress payments received under the Scheme.

Under the Means Test Discretion Policy, we can exercise discretion to waive the means test or any part of it, or waive payment of a contribution or any part of it, if satisfied that there are compelling reasons, which includes the potential hardship the recipient of assistance will experience if they have to pay a contribution.

Our Managing Debt Policy gives us the power to exercise discretion to waive a (final) contribution if an assisted person requests this on the basis of financial hardship.

Our organisation will consider these policies in assessing any application for a grant of legal assistance where a payment has been received under the Scheme.

Reviewed 21 February 2022

In this section