State care victims sue Government

A lawsuit was lodged with the Human Rights Review Tribunal in April. Photo / iStock

People who were abused while in state care are suing the Government for what they say is a failure to provide personal records which could help in their bid for compensation.

Some claimants have died before being able to properly lodge their claim due to a delay in receiving some documents, senior solicitor Amanda Hill of Cooper Legal told Radio New Zealand.

The group of 74 people is suing the Ministry of Social Development for $10,000 each, according to the broadcaster -- a total of $740,000, to be paid on top of any compensation received for the abuse.

The Privacy Commission had already deemed the delays a breach of her clients rights, Ms Hill said.

"They get stuck, basically, in a system where they've come to us and talked about their history of abuse, and often had to deal with really traumatic events that they've spent a lot of time trying to forget, and then they kind of have to sit and wait in a vortex," she said.

"The delays have created their own sort of stress, and our clients often don't have good health, so we've had clients who have died while they've waited for their records."

It had taken anywhere between seven to 16 months to get records in some cases, she said.

A lawsuit was lodged with the Human Rights Review Tribunal in April.

The delays "feel like a secondary type of abuse", for many of the claimants, Ms Hill said, "where the same organisation that abused them as children is now treating this request for records with a degree of contempt".

The law firm had 99 other outstanding requests for records, some made almost a year ago, Ms Hill said.

The Ministry of Social Development refused to comment to Radio New Zealand while the case was before the tribunal, it reported.