On this page
- Eligibility for our process
- Making sure your claim is in the right place
- Our claims process
- Support available
- Rapid payment options
- Reviewing your claim
- Criminal conduct
- Special requests or needs
- Limitation policy for claims of abuse in state care
- Royal Commission of Inquiry and Crown Response
- Interim process in place for new claims submitted after 9 May 2025
- Top-up payments
- Common payment framework
- Maintaining your privacy
- Policies and guidelines
- Contacts
Eligibility for our process#
A sensitive claim is where a person believes they were abused in a New Zealand state school and would like some form of redress from the Ministry of Education. In the past, these were called historic abuse claims.
You may be able to lodge a sensitive claim with the Ministry of Education if you believe you were abused (physical, sexual, emotional/psychological), or neglected, and you believe that the experience has harmed you in some way when you 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), and
- you believe that this experience has harmed you in some way.
We do not accept claims on behalf of individuals who are deceased. If a claimant lodges an eligible claim and passes away before the claim is resolved, their estate may continue the claim on their behalf.
A specialist school is defined as per the limitation policy. If you are unsure about the school you are concerned about, please contact us.
Limitation policy for claims of abuse in state care
Making sure your claim is in the right place#
In some cases, we won’t be the right place for your claim. For example, if your claim is about incidents at a primary school after 1989 or at a secondary school and that school is still open, the school’s board might be the correct respondent to your claim.
If you would like to lodge a claim about your time at a state school and you are unsure about where to go, we are happy to discuss this with you. We can also support you to talk to a school board about your concerns if you wish.
We cannot consider claims about private schools. You will need to discuss this with the governing body of the school in the first instance.
Our claims process#
When you lodge a claim with us, there is some information we need from you to get the process started.
- Download and complete the form.
Provide:
- your full name and date of birth
- the name of the school(s) you are complaining about
- the period you were at the school (this can be an estimate)
- a summary of your concerns – understanding your experience at school will help us to respond to your claim
- a copy of your photo ID (such as your driver's license or passport).
We are available to help you through the process.
- We will search for records we hold about you.
We will search for any records we hold about you, and we can provide you with a copy of this material.
With your consent, we can also help you get your records from a school.
We are happy to answer any questions you have about your records.
- We run the claim review.
If we are the right place for your claim and you are comfortable continuing through the process, your claim will be added to the queue for claim review.
We currently have a number of claims waiting to be reviewed. We generally try to review older claims first, so there may be some wait for a claim review.
We will consider prioritising a claim as per our claim allocation and prioritisation policy.
Support available#
We understand lodging a claim can be distressing. We can provide support to you and your whānau while your claim is being processed.
Rapid payment options#
Rapid payments are an optional way to settle your claim with the Ministry quickly and without the need for an individual claim review.
Reviewing your claim#
We will appoint a claim reviewer to review your claim. They are external to the Ministry.
We will invite you to meet with the reviewer to talk about your experiences and discuss what you would like from the process. We can arrange for this meeting to take place at a location, date and time that is convenient to you. You are welcome to bring whānau and other support people with you to this meeting.
You can also bring along any documentation you have if you think this information will help the reviewer. (You can share documentation before your meeting too.)
The reviewer will consider the information you share with them, as well as any other relevant material we find, such as documentation from the school. The reviewer will go over all of this information to consider the merits of your claim.
Alternative arrangements#
If you don’t think you can manage a meeting or would prefer not to have one, we can discuss alternative arrangements with you.
Criminal conduct#
If your complaint is about criminal conduct, you may like to consider making a complaint to the NZ Police.
We might want to refer the issues you have raised with us to the Police ourselves, particularly if we are concerned that there could be a current risk to the safety of children. We will discuss this with you if we would like to do this.
Special requests or needs#
We will accommodate any special requests or needs you have, where appropriate.
If you need a sign language interpreter when you meet with us, we can organise for you to have the support of your preferred interpreter.
We will be respectful of your culture and values.
You are not required to have a lawyer to make a claim with us, but you are free to seek legal advice at any stage of the process. If you have a lawyer, correspondence about your claim will be through them.
You can put your claim on hold at any time.
Limitation policy for claims of abuse in state care#
Taking a claim through the Ministry of Education’s sensitive claims process does not affect your right to take your case to court.
Crown agencies have developed a limitation policy to help protect your right to go to court from the effects of the Limitation Act 1950 and the Limitation Act 2010 while you are engaging with a Crown sensitive claims process.
You can stop the counting of time for limitation purposes by filing your claim in court. But the limitation policy means that time you spend engaging with a sensitive claims process is not counted for the purposes of calculating timeframes under limitation law. This means that you will not be disadvantaged if you try and resolve your claim directly with the Ministry before filing your claim in court.
If you have any questions about the limitation policy, we recommend that you seek legal advice.
Read the limitation policy and an easy-read guide to the policy.
Royal Commission of Inquiry and Crown Response#
Royal Commission into Abuse in State Care and in Care of Faith-Based Institutions#
The Royal Commission into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions has released its final landmark report 'Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light'.
Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light
Find out more on the Royal Commission’s website.
Abuse in Care – Royal Commission of Inquiry
The Crown response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry: Improving redress for survivors#
The Government has announced a series of redress improvements for survivors of abuse in State care.
Crown response to the Abuse in Care Inquiry
Interim process in place for new claims submitted after 9 May 2025#
Survivors who have submitted a new claim on or after 9 May 2025, who are seeking financial redress, will be required to fill out a form giving consent for a criminal conviction history check to be made by an independent redress assessment unit.
The sensitive claims team will provide the forms to claimants who have lodged an eligible claim with the Ministry.
If you are unsure if this applies to you, contact the sensitive claims team.
Phone: 0800 663 252
Email: [email protected]
You can find out more about the interim process here.
Make a new redress claim – Redress New Zealand
Top-up payments#
Information about top-up payment for survivors with closed claims#
Survivors with closed claims made prior to 9 May 2025 from the Ministry of Social Development, Oranga Tamariki and Ministry of Education can apply to receive a 50% increase to whatever payment was previously received.
Eligible survivors with closed claims with the Ministry of Health or Crown Health Financing Agency will receive more to bring their payment in line with other redress agencies and then a top-up payment of 50% will be applied.
To find out more and register for a top-up payment visit:
Common payment framework#
A common payment framework guides decision making about what payment is offered to survivors of abuse in care who are accessing redress from government agencies.
Information about the framework can be found at the State Redress New Zealand website.
Find out more about the rapid payments for Waimokoia.
Maintaining your privacy#
Personal information is being collected by the Ministry for the purpose of assessing your claim. We are committed to keeping your information safe. Any information you provide, including your name, contact details, and information about your claim, will be securely filed. Information you provide will only be used for the purpose it was collected for and will not be disclosed by the Ministry except in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020 and any relevant Court orders.
Policies and guidelines#
We will publish current versions of our policy and guidance documents here. We are working with other abuse in care redress agencies on one set of operational policies that will apply to all these agencies. We may replace the documents published here as they are changed or updated.
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