This page provides information about the eligibility criteria of government redress agencies and an interim process for survivors seeking financial redress.

Access to redress

Survivors of historical abuse and neglect in State care can make a redress claim. Redress includes:

  • access to care records
  • financial payment
  • wellbeing support
  • a personalised apology
  • legal services support.

 

To access redress survivors need to contact a relevant agency. Below you can find out information about eligibility criteria for the Ministry of Social Development, Oranga Tamariki, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Te Puni Kōkiri and Corrections.

Ministry of Social Development 

The Ministry of Social Development is responsible for resolving  redress claims for abuse and neglect in State care relating to events that occurred before 1 April 2017, for people who were in care, custody, guardianship or came to the notice of: 

  • the Child Welfare Division 
  • the Department of Social Welfare 
  • the New Zealand Children and Young Persons Service or Child, Youth and Family. 
To register
  • 0800 631 127 to speak with a Historic Claims staff member 

For more information, visit: Historic Claims | Ministry of Social Development

Oranga Tamariki 

Oranga Tamariki is responsible for resolving redress claims for abuse and neglect in state care relating to events from 1 April 2017. If you have a social worker, please let them know you would like to make a claim.

To register
  • call 0508 326 459 

For more information, visit: Claims for abuse while in care | Oranga Tamariki — Ministry for Children 

Ministry of Health 

The Ministry of Health administers redress claims relating to allegations of abuse in state-run psychiatric facilities and psychopaedic hospitals from 1 July 1993 to 30 June 2022. Such abuse includes allegations of physical abuse, sexual abuse or treatment used as punishment (such as ECT or solitary confinement) while in care.

To register 
  • call (04) 4962000 
  • write to the Historic Abuse Resolution Service, Postal - Health Legal, Ministry of Health, PO Box 5013, Wellington 6145 

For more information, visit: Historic abuse claims | Ministry of Health NZ 

Ministry of Education 

The Ministry of Education responds to redress claims where a person believes they were abused, mistreated or neglected and believe the experience has harmed them in some way when they attended:

  • a specialist school before 1989 
  • a primary school prior to 1989 
  • any State school that is now closed (including specialist schools and health camp schools). 
To register

To make a sensitive claim with the Ministry of Education or to enquire about the eligibility of your claim, contact: 

  • call 0800 663 252 

For more information, visit: Sensitive claims of abuse in state schools - Ministry of Education 

Te Puni Kōkiri

A person is eligible to make a claim to Te Puni Kōkiri if they believe they were abused or neglected:

  • whilst attending or participating in the Te Whakapakari Youth Programme during the period of 1 January 1977 – 31 December 1989, while the Department of Māori Affairs had administrative oversight of the Te Whakapakari Youth Programme; or
  • by a Department Employee responsible for delivering services related to the care, protection, or control of the person when they were a child or young person; or
  • whilst in a care programme administered by the department where a Departmental Employee ought to have reasonably known about the abuse and failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the abuse.

For the purposes of the above criteria, it is intended that:

  • “Departmental Employee” includes Mātua Whāngai social workers;
  • “care programme administered by the DMA” includes the Mātua Whāngai programme itself; and
  • “abused” and “neglect” encompasses the same definitions as those in the Common Payment Framework.

Individuals who do not meet the above criteria will not be eligible to receive redress from Te Puni Kōkiri.

To register

If you meet the above eligibility criteria, you can register a claim by emailing:

 claims@tpk.govt.nz.

What happens after you register

After you register, Te Puni Kōkiri or its representative will contact you to acknowledge receipt of your registration and may ask you to provide further information to help confirm your eligibility.

If you are eligible, we will give you information about wellbeing support.

If you are not eligible, we will suggest other services that may be able to help. If your claim is the responsibility of another agency, we will help connect you.

Although Te Puni Kōkiri can receive registrations for claims and determine their eligibility, we do not currently run a redress process. Your claim will be held while decisions are made about how Te Puni Kōkiri claims will be managed within the wider work to improve the State redress system. 

Updates about this work will be provided on this website. 

Corrections 

You can make a redress claim to Corrections if you:

  • were placed in a youth penal institution operated by the former Department of Justice, which includes borstals, corrective training institutions, detention centres and youth prisons (also sometimes known as youth institutions)
  • allege that you were physically, sexually, emotionally, psychologically abused and/or neglected, and believe that the experience harmed you in some way.
Assess your eligibility

When you contact Corrections to make a redress claim they will assess your eligibility. This means they will review the records they hold about you to confirm you were placed in a youth penal institution. You may choose to request your care records from Corrections at this time.

If Corrections cannot confirm your eligibility by the records it holds, they may need to ask you for more information to make a decision about your eligibility.

If you are not eligible, Corrections will either connect you with an agency responsible for your care, or talk to you about services that may be available to support you.

If your eligibility is confirmed

Corrections is still developing its assessment approach to respond to eligible claims. Updates about this work will be provided on this website.

In the meantime, you can still access wellbeing support, which you will be contacted about once your eligibility is confirmed.

To register

If you meet the above eligibility criteria, you can register a claim by emailing:

historicclaims@corrections.govt.nz

 

Previous claims

If a survivor receives a redress payment with one State redress agency, they may not be eligible to raise the same allegations with another redress agency.

Interim process for applications to financial redress

All survivors seeking financial redress from 9 May 2025 will be required to consent for a criminal conviction history check to be made by an independent redress assessment unit. 

This includes consent for the Unit to request any sentencing information on their behalf from the relevant sentencing Court(s) if their criminal conviction history result shows they have been convicted of a serious violent and/or sexual offence.

Survivors who have been sentenced to five or more years in prison for a single serious violent and/or sexual offence will have their financial redress application put on hold. However, they may still receive an apology and access wellbeing support.

Examples of qualifying offences include but are not limited to the following offences:

  • aggravated robbery
  • murder
  • manslaughter
  • intent to injure or cause grievous bodily harm
  • abduction
  • kidnapping
  • poisoning
  • infecting with disease.
     

A survivor will also need to submit the form with a copy of their identification (ID) to the redress agency they have registered with.

If they do not have ID, the redress agency they have registered with will work with them to confirm their identity. 

If they do not complete and submit this form, their application for financial redress will not progress.

Survivors with a serious violent and/or sexual offence

Survivors who have been sentenced to five or more years in prison for a single serious violent and/or sexual offence will have their financial redress application put on hold. However, they may still receive an apology and access wellbeing support.

Survivors who are terminally ill

Survivors who are terminally ill and who may not survive the legislation process can apply for an exemption to this checking process. This applies for the interim part of the process only.

The Lead Coordination Minister can exempt a survivor from the process, as long as there is information from an appropriate medical professional confirming a diagnosis and prognosis. 

Survivors with a redress claim with multiple agencies

A survivor only needs to complete a declaration form once and can either share that with all agencies they have a claim with or request it is shared with the other agencies on their behalf.