Supporting documents

You need to provide a copy of one form of current government-issued identification with your application. This could be a:

• birth certificate
  
• Centrelink card
  
• change of name certificate
  
• driver licence
  
• marriage certificate
  
• Medicare card
  
• MIN card
  
• passport
  
• photo card
  
• SafeWork licence
  
• SafeWork white card
  
• screenshot of your MyGov account or another government account. 

Please do not send us the original document. Please ensure the copy or image:

• is clear and not blurry 
• captures all parts of the identification, including the reverse side
• has the same name on the identification document and application form. If your name is different, you must provide evidence such as a change of name certificate. 

If the applicant is under the age of 18, a copy of the child applicant’s identification and their parent or guardian’s identification must be provided with the application form. 

If you’re unable to provide a copy of your government-issued identification, please contact us to discuss your options. 

If you’re applying for financial assistance or a recognition payment, you will need to provide details of a bank account in your name. If you would like victims support payments to be made to an account in another name, please contact the Victims Access Line or Aboriginal Contact Line before submitting your application as we will need further documentation from you to accept your application.

If you did not report the incident(s) to NSW police, you can provide a report written by a government or government-funded organisation to support your application. 

This report can be provided by a government agency, or an organisation that receives funding from the NSW Government or Australian Government to provide welfare, health, counselling or legal assistance to victims of crime.

The report needs to be written on the organisation’s letterhead and should be written objectively and factually, offering specific information and details rather than general references to incidents such as ‘domestic violence’. 

The report needs to include the following:

• Details of the person applying for support, including their:
  
  • full name
  • date of birth
  • Victims Services application reference number (if known).
• Details of the person writing the report, including their:
  • full name
  • contact telephone number
  • contact email address
  • job title and position.
• Details of the government or government-funded organisation providing the report, including the:
  • services the organisation provides (welfare, health, counselling or legal assistance)
  • details of funding received from the NSW Government or Australian Government, including the name of the funding or grant package and the purpose of the funding.
• Details of the applicant’s disclosure of the incident, including:
  • when the victim disclosed the incident
  • how the organisation assisted the victim.
• Details of the incident disclosed by the applicant, including:
  • what happened
  • where and when it happened
  • how the victim was affected, including any physical or psychological injuries
  • whether it involved a single incident or a series of incidents.

The completed and signed report should be provided to you (the applicant) to upload to your application, email or mail to us. 

Unfortunately, if information is missing from the report, we may not have enough evidence to determine the application for support.

Please note that Victims Services does not provide reimbursement or pay for the costs of an organisation completing a report. 

If you are applying for financial assistance for economic loss or a recognition payment, you need to provide a medical, dental or counselling report that shows how the incident affected you. If you are applying for financial assistance for immediate needs, you may want to include a medical, dental or counselling report to explain what happened to you and how the incident affected you. 

To get a medical, dental or counselling report, you can ask your doctor, dentist, counsellor, or other medical or health professional, to provide one of the following:

• a copy of your medical or health records
  
• a completed Certificate of Injury
  
• a report or letter on the organisation’s letterhead that includes their contact details and qualifications, as well as information about the incident and any injuries that resulted from the violent crime or modern slavery.
  

The completed form, record(s) or report(s) should be provided to you (the applicant) to upload to your application, or to email or mail to us. 

We will reimburse you for the cost of getting copies of existing records if your application is successful. We will not cover the cost of new reports created for the purposes of supporting your application.

To learn how to get your health records, and other records the government may hold about you, visit the Information and Privacy Commission’s website. 

If you’re applying for financial assistance, you can include expenses you are claiming in your Application for Support. You will need to provide copies of itemised tax invoices, receipts, or treatment plans for the costs you’re claiming and explain how the costs relate directly to the violent crime or modern slavery. You will also need to provide evidence of any Medicare or private health insurance rebates. 

After your initial application for financial assistance has been approved, you can use the Expenses form to claim new expenses. These expenses need to directly relate to the act of violence or act of modern slavery described in your initial application form. 

Alternatively, you can send us an email or letter with the following information and documents:

• your name
  
• Victims Services application reference number
  
• a list of the new expenses
  
• a description of how each cost was incurred as a direct result of the violent crime or modern slavery
  
• copies of itemised tax invoices, receipts or any other proof of expenditure.
  

If you have been approved for an Immediate Needs Support Package

If you’ve been approved for an Immediate Needs Support Package, you need to keep receipts, itemised tax invoices or other evidence that show how you used the money you received, such as a tenancy agreement, rental ledger or bank statement, for a period of 5 years. If you make another claim for the Immediate Needs Support Package in the future, you must provide the evidence of how you spent the money that was previously approved, at the time of making a new claim. 

If you've lost earnings because of an act of violence or modern slavery, you may be able to make a claim for financial assistance towards this loss. 

You will need to provide information about how you lost earnings because of the incident. To claim lost earnings, you need to provide:

• a completed Claim for Loss of Earnings
• a Certificate of Earnings (PDF, 99.2 KB) completed by your employer or accountant (if you’re self-employed). Alternatively, you can provide a signed letter on the organisation's letterhead from your employer or your accountant (if self-employed) that includes:
  • the type of your employment: full-time, part-time, casual, contractor or self-employed
  • the period(s) you were absent from work because of the violence
  • the types of leave taken for each period of absence.
• payslips for the month immediately before the violence and for the period(s) you were unable to work due to the violence (not required for self-employed applicants)
• medical certificates or other evidence showing the dates you could not work due to the violence and the reason you could not work
  
• statements showing other income you received when you could not work, such as Centrelink payments, workers compensation and income protection insurance.
  

If you are self-employed or have dependant(s), you also need to provide the following documents.

Self-employed applicants:

• Your last Notice of Assessment from the Australian Taxation Office. If you have not received your Notice of Assessment, you may not be able to establish loss of earnings.
  
• Bank statements showing your income in the three-month period immediately before the violent crime.
  
• Bank statements covering any period you could not work because of the violent crime.
  

Applicants with dependant(s):

• At least one document that shows your relationship to your dependant(s), such as:
  
  • a birth certificate  
  • a marriage certificate   
  • a relationship certificate  
  • a Medicare card  
  • a guardianship order 
  • a letter from Centrelink or any other government agency   
  • evidence a dependant child was a full-time student when you could not work (for children over 16 years and up to 21 years)
  • documents that show you have a de facto partner who has been living with you for the previous 2 years, for example, a joint bank account statement or a joint lease agreement.

The completed Claim for Loss of Earnings and supporting documents should be uploaded to your application or sent to us by email or post.