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Download AudioA veteran social worker and survivor of state care says a plan to start paying out compensation for abuse victims isn’t enough.
While a more permanent redress system is developed, payments will be made by the Ministry of Social Development to survivors of abuse in state care who are seriously unwell, aged over 70, or have waited the longest to get their claims considered.
The scheme is in response to a recommendation from the Royal Commission into abuse.
People could get $10,000 if they were in care for 5 to 9 years before 1999, up to $20,000 for 10 to 20 years and maxing out at $30,000 for 25 years.
Paora Crawford Moyle says that’s a pittance compared with compensation for things like wrongful imprisonment.
“What they’re paying out, the amount they’re paying out doesn’t even buy a decent car for a whanau, it doesn’t buy a boat to go fishing for your old people, it doesn’t buy anything that makes you feel that it’s enough, that it has compensated you to some degree, because the harm is so deeply felt across many generations,” she says.
Paora Crawford Moyle says survivors often say they didn’t share their stories for the putea but to ensure what happened to them doesn’t happen to anyone else in future.
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