Concerns and complaints

It's important to speak up

We know things don't always go the way they should and that it can be uncomfortable to speak up.

We encourage you to raise concerns and complaints with us, and we will take what you say seriously. This helps to make sure we are aware of issues and can help prevent them. We value your feedback, and we will do everything we can to help resolve the matter with you.

Important things to note about raising a complaint or concern:

  • It will not impact your claim or the supports and services available to you.
  • You can contact us about a concern or complaint that impacts you, or you can raise it on behalf of someone else. If it’s on behalf of someone else, we may be limited in how much information we can share with you.
  • We will make sure your concern gets to the right place, regardless of how you raise it.
  • If you wish to remain anonymous, calling us is the best option. However, this may limit how much support we can provide.
  • Our teams will work with you in a positive, honest and respectful manner. We encourage you to engage with us in the same way.

Find out more about the rights and responsibilities of TAC clients.

Raising a concern or complaint about the TAC

You can raise a concern or complaint about anything related to the TAC or a TAC claim, including:

  • The service you receive from the TAC and its staff.
  • The decisions we have made about your claim.
  • The service providers we pay for, including Independent Medical Examiners.
  • The community activities the TAC funds or is involved in, including events, advertisements and sponsorships.

Before you contact the Complaints team, we ask that you first consider speaking to your TAC Claims Manager who can help resolve your concerns. If you remain dissatisfied, you can ask to speak to their manager.

If you don’t feel comfortable doing this or would like to take your complaint further, you can contact the Complaints team by:

If your complaint is about a decision related to your TAC claim find out more about your options here.

Raising concerns about a TAC-funded service provider

You have the right to access safe and good quality treatments and supports, free from abuse or neglect. This includes anyone who is funded by the TAC to help support you in your recovery, such as providers of allied health, disability support, attendant care, medical services or domestic services.

The TAC expects that your TAC-funded service providers:

  • Provide safe, quality services and treat our clients with dignity and respect.
  • Promptly and thoroughly act on any concerns they have about the welfare of a TAC client.
  • Take action when they learn of any instance of abuse or neglect.

If you have a concern about a TAC-funded service provider, a good place to start is to speak with the service provider directly and see if they can resolve your concerns.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint or need further support, you can contact the TAC Safer Services Team by:

Our quality and safety page provides more information about what we expect of service providers.

Other ways you can raise concerns about service providers:

The following organisations also manage and investigate complaints about service providers and can be directly contacted:

Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA)
1300 419 495
www.ahpra.gov.au

Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission
1800 550 552
www.agedcarecomplaints.gov.au

Disability Services Commissioner
1800 677 342
www.odsc.vic.gov.au

Health Complaints Commissioner
1300 582 113
www.hcc.vic.gov.au

Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission
1800 246 054
www.mhwc.vic.gov.au

NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
1800 035 544
www.ndiscommission.gov.au

Victorian Disability Worker Commission (VDWC)
1800 497 132
www.vdwc.vic.gov.au

What happens after you raise a complaint or concern?

Once you have raised a concern or complaint with us, we will:

  • document your concerns,
  • gather more information from you if needed,
  • work with your claims manager or other people at the TAC to help address your concern,
  • keep you up to date, and
  • make sure we let you know about the action taken and the outcome.

We use this information to help address your concern, and to work with our staff and service providers to make improvements for the future.

Who will manage your complaint?

In some circumstances and if appropriate, we may refer your complaint back to a Team Manager or another area of the TAC to manage. We may also provide you with a referral pathway to another service who has the authority to investigate your concern further.

How long will it take?

We aim to resolve your concern as soon as possible:

  • If you have called us and we can’t resolve your concern during the call, we may call you back to collect more information. From there, we will let you know what the next steps are.
  • If you have sent a written complaint or if you would like a formal written response, then we will acknowledge and/or respond within 28 business days.

Sometimes we may require more time to properly review and respond to your concerns. If so, we will keep you updated on the progress of your complaint and if necessary, a written response will be provided at the conclusion of the review.

What the TAC cannot help with

  • We are not a crisis service and do not provide crisis support.
  • We do not have authority to investigate all types of allegations.
  • We do not duplicate the work of other external services.

Where we can’t resolve your concern, we will do our best to support you and others to follow the appropriate complaint pathways. See a list of other external supports available below.

If you are not satisfied with how we've managed your issue

While we will do our best to work with you to resolve your concerns or complaint, we appreciate that you may remain dissatisfied with the TAC or the outcome. If this is the case, you have some further options:

  • You can call us on 1300 654 329 and ask to speak to someone about your issue
  • If your complaint is about a claims decision, more information about your options is available here.
  • For issues about the TAC's level of service and how we deal with you, you can contact the Victorian Ombudsman on 03 9613 6222 (toll free - 1800 806 314), or by email at complaints@ombudsman.vic.gov.au. The Ombudsman can investigate complaints made about the administrative actions of Victorian government bodies, such as the TAC. The TAC cooperates with all enquiries made by the Victorian Ombudsman.

Find out more about the rights and responsibilities of TAC clients.

Emergency situations

The TAC is unable to provide emergency or crisis support.

In case of emergency, call 000 for attendance by ambulance, fire or police services. If you think a crime has been committed or is being committed, contact your local police.

Your privacy and confidentiality is important to us. However, if you inform us of an immediate danger to you or another person, we may be required to inform emergency services for your safety.

Your privacy

The TAC is committed to protecting your privacy. Any personal information collected, handled, stored or disclosed about you through our online services will be managed in accordance with the Transport Accident Act 1986, Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 and the Health Records,

We may disclose the information to service providers, law enforcement agencies or regulatory bodies when required to by law, or when permitted to by privacy laws. We will aim at all times to protect your privacy and may contact you to advise when we disclose the information.

See the privacy policy for more information.

Compliments

The TAC is always eager to hear about what we are doing well, and we like to celebrate this with our staff. You can provide compliments via the contact us form.

Lifeline (24 hours)
13 11 14
www.lifeline.org.au

Kids Helpline (24 hours)
1800 551 800
www.kidshelpline.com.au

13YARN First Nations Crisis Support Line (24 hours)
13 92 76

Disability Advocacy Resource Unit > Find an Advocate
(03) 9639 5807
www.daru.org.au/find-an-advocate

1800 RESPECT (24 hours)
1800 737 732
www.1800respect.org.au

‘Safe Steps’ Family Violence Response Centre (24 hours)
1800 015 188
www.safesteps.org.au

Sexual Assault Crisis Line (after hours)
1800 806 292
www.sacl.com.au

Amber Community
1300 367 797
www.ambercommunity.org.au/counselling-and-support/

Ask Izzy (directory of different crisis supports)www.askizzy.org.au