Prepare a Victorian financial assistance scheme application
MaintainedLast reviewed
Key facts
- Human involvement
- YellowClose supervision
- How AI is used
- From the lawyer's register and the documents the lawyer marks, complete the Financial Assistance Scheme fields for identity, the assistance sought and the attachments. Do not write what happened to the client.
- What the lawyer must review
- Confirm the scheme, the victim type and the published time limit
- Check every field against the documents before the client approves it
- The tool writes nothing about the violent act
Rules that apply
The document starts from the task name. Change it if this piece of work is different.
The work product
Forum. Victorian Financial Assistance Scheme for victims of crime
Produce. A draft application for the lawyer and the client to check, with the narrative of the violent act left blank.
Have ready. Lawyer's eligibility and deadline register; Marked police, medical and expense documents; Current Financial Assistance Scheme guidelines.
Example of the limit. Illustrative example: An adult primary victim of an assault seeks medical expenses and loss of income. The draft lists those heads and the attachments. It does not describe the assault. The lawyer checks the three-year limit and the published loss-of-income cap before the client approves the application.
Stop and hand it back when
- The violent act has not been reported and no special circumstance is instructed.
- The draft would describe what happened to the client.
Sources for this task were checked on 2026-10-23.
Who does what
| Role | What they do |
|---|---|
| Assistance | Do not begin AI assistance until the responsible lawyer has defined and confirmed its permitted scope. |
| Lawyer | Set the scope, supervise the work closely, verify every part relied on, resolve omissions and exceptions, and approve the exact output. |
Checklist
- Confirm the applicant is a primary, secondary or related victim and whether the violent act was reported to police within a reasonable time, or that special circumstances are relied on.
- Apply the Financial Assistance Scheme time-limit guideline. A person who was 18 or over at the violent act has 10 years from the last violent act for a sexual offence or family violence, and 3 years from the last violent act for other offending. A person who was under 18 has no time limit for child abuse or family violence, and must otherwise apply before turning 21. For a related victim of a death in family violence, an adult applicant has 10 years and a child applicant has no time limit.
- List only the assistance the page allows a primary victim to seek, including counselling, medical expenses, safety items, clothing, loss of income for up to 2 years up to the published $21,134, and other expenses only in exceptional circumstances.
- Treat special financial assistance as additional, up to $20,000 for a single offence or $25,000 for multiple offences, and do not fold it into the assistance pool.
- Stop if the application would state what happened to the client. That account is inserted only as the client gives it.
Forms and precedents for this task
| Form or precedent | Kind | AI use | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Victim Assist Queensland request for funeral expenses | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to the Victim Assist page for funeral expenses after a violent crime: a related victim claiming online uses Part A, then Part B, and the email path uses a Funeral Only PDF that was not opened. |
| Application for support (NSW Victims Support Scheme) | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to the current Victims Support Scheme Application for support, for counselling, financial assistance and a recognition payment, with the time limits stated on the making-an-application page. |
| FAS client authorisation form, where the representative is a lawyer: completion guide | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to the Financial Assistance Scheme client authorisation of July 2026, which the scheme uses instead of a statutory declaration when the authorised representative is a lawyer. |
| FAS offline legal costs payment application: completion guide | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to the Financial Assistance Scheme form lawyers use to claim reasonable legal costs for a complex application when they cannot apply online. |
| Victims Support Scheme application (NSW): who can apply, the online application and what depends on the victim's situation | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to the NSW Government's Victims Support Scheme page and online application, with a guide to who the scheme covers (violent crime, modern slavery and road crime), what varies by situation, and keeping the victim's account their own. |
| Primary victim financial assistance application (Northern Territory): completion guide | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to the Northern Territory primary victim financial assistance application. |
| Related victim financial assistance application (Victim Assist Queensland Form 7) | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to Victim Assist Queensland Form 7 version 4, for a spouse, partner, parent, child, sibling or dependant after a homicide in Queensland. |
| Application for financial assistance (Victim Assist Queensland): who can apply and how to lodge | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to the Queensland Government's page for applying to Victim Assist Queensland, with a guide to who can apply, the reporting requirement, online and PDF applications, and the victim's own account. |
| Letter asking police for a report for a victims application | Letter | AI use Yellow | A letter asking police for a copy of a report or statement about a violent incident, so it can be used with a victims assistance application. |
| NSW recognition payment: category and amount worksheet | Checklist | AI use Yellow | A worksheet matching a NSW recognition payment application to the amounts and applicant classes published by Victims Services, with the time frames on that page flagged for checking against the Act. |
| Family victim financial assistance application (Northern Territory): completion guide | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to the Northern Territory family victim financial assistance application. |
| Parent secondary victim financial assistance (Victim Assist Queensland Form 8) | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to Victim Assist Queensland Form 8 version 3, for a parent injured by learning of an act of violence against their child in Queensland. |
| Adult cultural support plan (Victorian Financial Assistance Scheme) | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to the FAS adult cultural support plan for an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander applicant. |
| Financial Assistance Scheme application (Victoria): applying, nominating someone to help, and the support available | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to Victoria's Financial Assistance Scheme help page, with a guide to nominating someone to apply on the victim's behalf, legal, language and cultural assistance, and the Marra Yattakunar pathway for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants. |
| Criminal injuries compensation application (Western Australia): eCourts lodgment, the 3-year limit and supporting documents | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to the WA Office of Criminal Injuries Compensation lodgment page, with a guide to lodging through the eCourts Portal (required for solicitors), no fee, the 3-year time limit and extension requests, and the documents to supply. |
| Letter asking a practitioner for records or a report for a victims application | Letter | AI use Yellow | A letter asking a doctor, dentist or counsellor for existing records, or a short factual letter, to support a victims assistance application. |
| NSW recognition payment: supporting documents checklist | Checklist | AI use Green | The documents Victims Services asks a primary victim to lodge with a recognition payment application, and the 12 months the page allows for a late medical, dental or counselling report. |
| Primary victim application (ACT Financial Assistance Scheme): completion guide | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to the ACT primary victim application for financial assistance, on the Human Rights Commission forms page. |
| Witness secondary victim financial assistance (Victim Assist Queensland Form 9) | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to Victim Assist Queensland Form 9 version 4, for a person injured by seeing or hearing an act of violence in Queensland. |
| Child and young person cultural support plan (Victorian Financial Assistance Scheme) | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to the FAS cultural support plan for an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child or young person, including the parent or guardian consent. |
| Letter supporting a victims assistance application | Letter | AI use Yellow | A covering letter to the victims assistance body, sent with the application and the reports the scheme's page asks for. |
| Related victims and homicide witnesses application (ACT): completion guide | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to the ACT related victims and homicide witnesses application on the Human Rights Commission forms page. |
| NSW victims support: instructions where support may be reduced or refused | Memo | AI use Yellow | A note of the facts a lawyer needs before advising on a possible reduction or refusal of NSW victims support, using the factors the recognition payment page says s 44 includes. |
| Application for Victims of Crime Assistance (Tasmania): completion guide | Form | AI use Red | Link to the Tasmanian Application for Victims of Crime Assistance. |
| Extension of time (Tasmanian Victims of Crime Assistance): completion guide | Form | AI use Yellow | Link to the Tasmanian Application for Extension of Time for Victims of Crime Assistance. |
Signed-in accounts can read the full text of each one. All precedents.
Sources
- Victims of Crime Victoria: financial assistance for primary victims · 2026-10-23
- Victims of Crime Victoria: Financial Assistance Scheme guidelines, special financial assistance · 2026-10-23
- Victims of Crime Victoria: Financial Assistance Scheme guidelines · 2026-10-23
The primary victims page states an assistance figure of $63,401. The special financial assistance guidelines say special financial assistance sits outside a $61,499 maximum, and a footnote says that maximum is indexed under section 72 of the Act. The two pages do not use the same figure. Use the current indexed amount.
Practice Note SC GEN 25 does not govern this administrative scheme. If a later court document is prepared from the file, follow that practice note.