Counselling
The Victims Support Scheme offers counselling to help you recover from the psychological and emotional impacts of the offence.
If eligible, you can receive up to 22 hours of counselling.
You may be able to get more counselling if:
- your family member died due to a homicide or road crime
- you are the victim of child abuse, or
- there are exceptional circumstances.
Financial assistance for immediate needs
The Victims Support Scheme provides up to $5,000 to help cover immediate health, safety or security expenses resulting from the crime.
If eligible, you can ask to be repaid up to $5,000 for expenses like:
- changing the locks on your doors
- moving house
- putting an alarm in your home
- emergency appointments with the doctor, dentist, and other medical bills
- crime scene clean-up.
This amount is available to primary victims and family victims.
Immediate Needs Support Package
The Immediate Needs Support Package (INSP) can give up to $5,000 to support victims of domestic violence in NSW. The money is to help pay for urgent expenses related to health, safety and wellbeing, including:
- rent assistance
- household items, such as furniture, bedding, kitchenware and linen
- clothing and toiletries
- whitegoods and appliances
- change of locks
- security cameras
- security windows or doors
- alarm system
- storage
- removalist.
A package is made to meet the needs of each person based on the situation and what they need.
It is available to primary victims of domestic violence where the offender:
- is, or was, their spouse or de facto partner
- is, or was, in an intimate personal relationship with the victim
- lived with the victim at the time of the offence
- is, or was, the victim’s parent, step-parent, guardian, child, step-child, sibling, half-sibling or step-sibling
- was the victims ongoing paid or unpaid carer at the time of the offence.
It is not available if the offender is:
- an aunt or Uncle, including in-laws
- an nephew or niece
- a cousin
- a grandparent
- kin in an Indigenous kinship relationship.
If you have already paid security or moving costs, you can apply to be repaid for those expenses.
You can apply to both the Financial assistance for immediate needs and the INSP, but the most you can get across both programs is $5,000.
Financial assistance for economic loss
The Victims Support Scheme can also give money to cover what is called ‘economic loss’. Economic loss includes things like lost earnings because you couldn’t work, and other costs that you had to pay because of a violent crime or modern slavery. What you can get depends on what type of victim you are and the costs that you want to be repaid.
If you have any insurance that could, or has, paid you for your loss, you can’t apply to the Victims Support Scheme for economic loss.
Primary victims
A primary victim can get up to $30,000 for economic loss suffered due to an act of violence or modern slavery.
| Maximum amount | Type of need/Economic loss |
|---|---|
| $20,000 | Actual loss of earnings. |
| $5,000 | Out-of-pocket expenses, if victim can’t prove actual loss of earnings. |
| $30,000 | Doctor, dentist or other medical bills. |
| $5,000 | Expenses associated with criminal or coronial proceedings related to the offence, including making statements to police, and preparing a victim impact statement. |
| $1,500 | Loss or damage to the clothes you wore, or items you were carrying, at the time of the offence. |
Parent, step-parent or guardian of primary victim
A parent, step-parent or guardian who is caring for a child who is the primary victim of an act of violence or modern slavery can get up to $30,000.
| Maximum amount | Type of need/economic loss |
|---|---|
| $20,000 | Actual loss of earnings because of the need to care for the child as a direct result of the offence. |
| $5,000 | Out-of-pocket expenses, if the parent, step-parent or guardian can’t prove actual loss of earnings. |
| $30,000 | Doctor, dentist or other medical bills for the child. |
| $5,000 | Expenses associated with criminal or coronial proceedings related to the offence, including making statements to police, and preparing a victim impact statement. |
| $1,500 | Loss or damage to the clothes the child wore, or items the child was carrying, at the time of the offence. |
Family victims
A family victim can get up to $5,000 for costs associated with court proceedings related to the offence, making statements to police or preparing a victim impact statement.
Recognition payments
The Victim Support Scheme provides recognition payments to acknowledge that you have been the victim of a crime or modern slavery.
The are five categories of recognition payments for different acts of violence. The amount of each payment is based on the type of violence associated with an offence.
Not all offences or acts of violence are covered by a recognition payment.
| Amount of payment | Category of offence | Recipient |
|---|---|---|
| $15,000 | Homicide | Financially dependent family victims and children |
$10,000 |
| Primary victims |
| $7,500 | Homicide | Parents, step-parents or guardians, current spouses or de facto partners of a homicide victim |
$5,000 |
| Primary victims |
|
| Primary victims |
Grievous bodily harm includes the destruction of a foetus of a pregnant woman, not by a medical procedure. It doesn’t matter whether or not the woman suffers any other harm.
Funeral expenses
The Victims Support Scheme can give up to $9,500 towards the cost of the funeral of a victim of homicide in NSW. This can be used to cover a range of services for a funeral or cremation, including:
- audio visual
- balloons and soft toys - for child victims
- coffin or casket
- costs that relate to use of facilities
- cremation and burial fees
- embalming
- flowers
- headstone
- memorial expenses
- minister or clergy fees
- printing costs, such as service sheets
- obituary notice
- repatriation
- wake-related expenses.
This is available to family of the victim and funeral directors.
Forensic cleaning
If your home was the scene of a violent crime, it may need professional cleaning to make it safe and liveable again. You are responsible for organising and paying for your home to be cleaned. You should get help from professional cleaners who specialise in crime scene cleaning to this. It may be unhealthy or unsafe for you to clean your home yourself, especially if there was blood or dangerous chemicals left behind.
The police are responsible for cleaning the residue of any chemicals they used to find and collect evidence at a crime scene. Removal of these chemicals requires specialist techniques and should only be done by qualified professionals who must follow Work, Health & Safety guidelines.
The police won’t cover the costs of cleaning up fingerprint powder residue left at your home. They can give you information about how to clean-up fingerprint powder residue.
You should speak to the officer in charge of the investigation about what help the police will provide.
For more information, see Crime Scene Clean up on the NSW Police Force website.
If the police won’t cover the costs of professional cleaning, you may be able to apply to the Victims Support Scheme. If approved, you could get up to $5,000 to cover the costs of crime scene clean up, as well as other urgent security, relocation or travels needs.
This support is available to:
- a primary victim
- a family victim
- a service provider, such as a forensic cleaner.
For more information, see Applying for victims support.
If someone has passed away by suicide or natural causes and the police didn’t use any chemicals to find evidence, you are responsible for arranging and paying for the clean-up of the crime scene.
To find a forensic cleaner, you can:
- speak to the police officer in charge of the investigation
- search for ‘Forensic cleaning’ online, or
- speak to a support worker.
Last updated: March 2026
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