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How to apply for financial assistance as a victim of crime

There are certain situations where we can give you financial assistance after you experience a violent crime. This page explains how to apply and what kind of expenses you might be able to claim.

Before you fill out your forms, we recommend you read about claiming financial assistance to understand whether you should make a claim or not.

You also need to report the violence before you make a claim, so make sure you read about who you can report to.

How to apply

If you have read the other pages and you think you may be eligible, follow these steps to apply for financial assistance from Victim Assist Queensland.

1. Download your forms
2. Fill them in, providing the requested information
3. Send your forms to us

Download and fill in the correct forms

All applicants must fill in the:

• financial assistance application form that best fits their circumstances (outlined below)
• verification of identity form.

You may also need to provide the Victim Assist medical certificate.

It is good to include information about your injuries. If you include this when you first apply, we may be able to assess your application faster.

Verification of identity

You can fill in the financial assistance application form yourself, but you will need to ask someone else for help to verify your identity.

The back of the form lists who can verify your identity.

Access the verification of identity form

Medical certificate

We need to confirm your injuries. Give the medical certificate form to the health practitioner that is treating your injuries. Learn more on the injuries factsheet—we recommend you read this first.

It may also help to give them one of these factsheets and ask them to provide supporting documents:

• medical expenses factsheet
• counselling expenses factsheet
• report expenses factsheet.

You may not need to complete this form if you have other medical information you can provide.

Access the optional medical certificate

Financial assistance application forms

We may be able to help you pay for expenses incurred as a direct result of the act of violence.

We can’t predict how much we will grant to each applicant. We assess every application individually and think about the individual circumstances of each applicant.

These people may apply:

• primary victims
• related victims
• funeral expenses
• parent secondary victims
• witness secondary victims.

Learn more about these types of victim.

Primary victims

Use the primary victim form if you have been injured as a direct result of an act of violence committed against you.

If you are eligible, we will give primary victims a special assistance recognition payment. The amount of special assistance you will receive depends on what the act of violence was.

You can also ask for help with certain expenses.

When you apply, it is good to include information about your expenses. If you include it when you first apply, we may be able to assess your expenses faster.

Find out what we need to see for each type of expense:

• counselling expenses
• medical expenses
• medical report expenses
• travel expenses to access treatment
• loss or damage to clothing worn at the time of the incident
• loss of income
• legal expenses.

In exceptional circumstances, we may also be able to help with certain other expenses (e.g. relocation or safety expenses).

Access the primary victim application form

Related victims

We can only give financial assistance to certain close family members or financial dependants of a person who has died from a violent crime.

Learn more about:

• related victims
• claiming dependency.

If you are an eligible related victim or financial dependant, we may be able to give you a distress payment of up to $10,000.

We may also be able to help with:

• counselling expenses
• medical expenses
• medical report expenses
• travel expenses to access treatment
• legal expenses.

In exceptional circumstances, we may also be able to help with certain other expenses (e.g. crime scene clean-up, relocation).

Financial dependants may also be able to claim a dependency payment.

Access the related victim application form

Funeral expenses

If a person has died from an act of violence, we may be able to reimburse or pay for up to $8,000 in funeral expenses.

Access the funeral assistance application form

Parent secondary victims

Use the parent secondary form if you were injured by an act of violence against your child, who was under 18 when the violence happened.

We may be able to help parent secondary victims with:

• counselling expenses
• medical expenses
• medical report expenses
• travel expenses to access treatment
• legal expenses.

In exceptional circumstances, we may also be able to help with:

• loss of income
• certain other expenses (e.g. relocation or safety costs).

Access the parent secondary application form

Witness secondary victims

Use the witness secondary form if you saw or heard a violent act of crime and it caused injury to you.

We may be able to help witness secondary victims with:

• counselling expenses
• medical expenses
• medical report expenses
• travel expenses to access treatment
• legal expenses.

If you witnessed a homicide, in exceptional circumstances, we may also be able to help with:

• loss of income
• some other expenses (e.g. relocation or safety costs).

Access the witness secondary application form

Sending your forms

Send your completed forms and supporting information to us either by email or post.

Email

VictimAssist@justice.qld.gov.au

To email your application, scan or clearly photograph:

• each page of your application form (including any blank pages).
• your verification of identity form
• your supporting documents.

Attach each document to your email separately.

Post

Victim Assist Queensland
GPO Box 149
BRISBANE  QLD  4001

When posting your application, photocopy your forms and supporting documents and:

• post the copies to us
• keep the originals.