You can choose to have a lawyer represent you and claim on your behalf. Find out about getting legal advice.
You can contact the Historic Abuse Resolution Service by:
The Historic Abuse Resolution Service will ask you to tell them about your experiences and the abuse you suffered while in care.
Any supporting evidence you can provide may help with your claim. Examples of supporting evidence you might provide include:
The Historic Abuse Resolution Service will also ask you for approval to access information about you – such as your medical records. This means they will give you a form to sign and return.
If you are a terminally ill Lake Alice survivor, the Ministry of Health will give you a $20,000 urgent payment.
They will need a letter from your doctor or other medical professional, confirming you have six months or less to live.
They will assess your claim based on the information and records they have (acknowledging that some records may no longer be available in some cases).
Once they receive your records from Health New Zealand, the timeframe for processing a request is usually 6 to 8 weeks. They will contact you with the outcome of the review and any offer.
The Ministry of Health will maintain all information provided to them in confidence and use it only to assess your claim.
They will offer you an apology and a wellbeing payment.
The wellbeing payment is ‘ex-gratia'. An ex-gratia payment is money someone chooses to give you, to acknowledge you have been harmed in some way – without accepting any blame for that harm.
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