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Financial assistance for people affected by homicide

If you have been affected by a homicide, we are sorry for your loss and want to be able to help you recover. We may be able to give financial assistance to close family members and financial dependants of people who have died as a result of violence or been killed by a dangerous driver.

Specialist support services

Queensland Homicide Victims Support Group provides statewide specialist support to people who have experienced a homicide in their family. They can also provide information about the what to expect during the investigation and subsequent trial and handling media enquiries.

You can ask the funeral director to help you apply for funeral assistance. We provide optional training for funeral directors about helping families after a homicide.

The deceased person’s partner, parents, children, siblings and financial dependents can apply for financial assistance if they had a close personal relationship with the deceased at the time of their death.

We can also consider applications from a person who was the deceased person’s parent, sibling or child under Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander custom.

You can apply for financial assistance if:

  • the homicide was committed in Queensland
  • the cause of death was:
    • murder
    • manslaughter
    • dangerous operation of a motor vehicle (e.g. car, bus, truck or motorbike) causing death
    • dangerous operation of a motor vessel (e.g. boat or jet ski) causing death.

Close family members

You will need to provide a document that confirms your relationship to the deceased person. Please provide 1 or more of the following:

  • a copy of the relevant birth certificate(s)
  • copies of a marriage license or shared bills, bank accounts, mortgage documents or rental agreements (partners)
  • a copy of a shared Medicare card
  • a copy of the deceased person’s will
  • a copy of the death notice (detailing family members).

If you are making a claim under Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander custom, you should provide a letter from a community Elder or justice group that explains your relationship to the deceased.

If needed, you could also provide copies of dated photos of family events, social media screenshots or telephone/messaging records to show you communicated regularly.

Financial dependants

A financial dependant is a person who is (or was) entirely or substantially dependant on the income of the deceased person at the time of their death.

You do not need to also be a close family member, but you may be. See dependency claims for more details.

Special conditions and limitations

We must consider the cause of death when we are assessing applications.

We may not be able to finalise the assessment if the victim is a missing person or the cause of death is unknown or not yet determined. If this is the case, you can complete the application form at any time, but we may need to defer making our decision until after:

We cannot pay financial assistance if the cause of death was:

Payments

If your application is approved, we may give you a one-off distress payment of up to  $15,000.

If you were a financial dependent of the deceased person, we may also be able to pay a one-off dependency payment of up to $20,000.

  • This payment is to recognise the loss of benefits you were receiving and would have continued to receive if the person had not died.
  • If more than 1 person was a financial dependant of the deceased person, the dependency  payment will be shared between the dependents.

We may also repay the cost of a range of expenses to help you recover.

How to claim

To claim financial assistance for the first time, you need to complete the application form and attach:

You can include funeral expenses and other expenses if you have them. If you are claiming medical expenses, you need to provide information about your injuries.

If you need to add a new expense to an application you have already submitted, use our expenses form.

Payment process

If your claim is approved, we will send you a ‘notice of decision’. This notice will list what we have agreed to pay for, who we will be paying and the conditions on the payment.

Please don’t tell a service provider that we will pay for something before you get the notice of decision.  The notice of decision will say if we will pay the cost or not.

Once you receive your notice of decision and your claim is approved, electronic payments will be deposited into your nominated bank account within 10 business days.

Lump sums

If you are an adult, and your claim is approved, lump sum payments (distress and dependency), will be paid directly to you.

If you are an adult with impaired capacity for a prescribed financial matter and your claim is approved, and an administrator or attorney (under an enduring power of attorney) has been appointed, the one-off lump sum payment will be paid to the administrator or enduring power of attorney.

If you are a child (under 18), and your claim is approved, lump sum payments (distress and dependency), will be paid directly to the Public Trustee of Queensland to be held in trust for you until you turn 18.

Timeframe

Due to the high number of claims already queued, it may be many months before we’re able to assess your application and pay approved expenses.

If you have an urgent expense, and meet the conditions for claiming urgent expenses, we may prioritise the assessment of these expenses. If we decide the expenses don’t meet these  conditions, we’ll let you know. Non urgent expenses will be queued for general assessment within normal timeframes.

Once you receive your notice of decision and your claim is approved, electronic payments will be deposited into your nominated bank account within 10 business days.

More information about claiming expenses

Last updated:
8 December 2023
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