Victims Support Act 2013

Claimants for court compensation awards A person is not eligible to receive victims support in respect of an act of violence or act of modern slavery if the person has been paid, or is entitled to be paid, compensation awarded by a court in respect of that act under Part 6 or if the person’s application for such compensation is pending.

Motor vehicle accidents A person is not eligible to receive victims support in respect of an act of violence if that act took the form of, or the injury arose as a consequence of, a motor accident within the meaning of the Motor Accidents Compensation Act 1999.

Exception to ineligibility for motor vehicle accidents Despite subsection (2), a family victim is eligible to receive victims support in respect of an act of violence referred to in that subsection if—

the act of violence took the form of the intentional killing of the primary victim, and

a person has been charged with murder in relation to the death of the primary victim.

Exception to ineligibility for motor vehicle accidents Despite subsection (2), a primary victim and a family victim are eligible to receive victims support in respect of an act of violence that was a terrorist act within the meaning of the Terrorism (Police Powers) Act 2002.

Offenders A person is not eligible to receive victims support—

in relation to an act of violence if the act occurred while the person was engaged in behaviour constituting an offence, or

if the person is a family victim of a road crime because the person is a member of the immediate family of the alleged offender.

However, if a person is a family victim of a road crime because the person is a member of the immediate family of the alleged offender and another person (the victim) who died as a result of the road crime, the person is eligible to receive victims support in relation to the victim.

Convicted inmates A person is not, except as provided by subsection (5), eligible to receive victims support in respect of an act of violence or act of modern slavery if it occurred while the person was imprisoned as a convicted inmate within the meaning of the Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Act 1999 (unless the person was imprisoned only because of the person’s failure to pay a pecuniary penalty).

Exception to ineligibility of convicted inmates However, any such convicted inmate may, in special circumstances, receive victims support. Any such support is not to be given unless the Scheme Executive is satisfied that the special circumstances of the case justify an exception being made to the general ineligibility of convicted inmates.

Without limiting subsection (5), the Scheme Executive may determine that special circumstances exist if the convicted inmate is seriously and permanently injured as a result of the act of violence or act of modern slavery concerned.

Regulations may be made for the purposes of this section prescribing the persons, or class of persons, who are not eligible to receive victims support in respect of an act of violence, an act of modern slavery or a road crime.