The State redress service will give your completed Serious Offender Declaration form to the Special Assessment Unit.
The Special Assessment Unit will collect information about your criminal history and decide whether the serious offender provision applies to you and if you are eligible for financial redress (payment).
Going through this can bring up a range of emotions. We have suggestions of wellbeing support on Kōnae. In 2026, the Government decided that if you have been convicted of a serious violence or sexual offence and sentenced to five years or more in prison for that offence, you will not be eligible for financial redress. If the Special Assessment Unit has decided you are not eligible for financial redress after considering your criminal conviction history, they will tell the government redress agency. They will not give them any details of your criminal history.
The government redress agency will tell you what the decision was and explain what the next steps are. This includes your right to ask for the decision to be reviewed by the Independent Redress Officer. If you decide to ask for a review, you can ask the government redress agency or the State redress service for a referral to the Independent Redress Officer.
If you have asked for the Independent Redress Officer to review your case, they will think about things like:
They will give you a written report of their decision, along with an explanation of their decision.
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