Government has apologised to 43 people who suffered physical abuse while they were children in state care over the past 70 years.
As well as apologising, the Ministry of Social Development has made payments totalling $713,315 to the victims since it began addressing historic claims eight years ago.
Information provided to The Dominion Post under the Official Information Act reveals that the average payment was $16,500, with sums varying between $4500 and $45,000.
The ministry's deputy chief executive of risk and assurance, Wendy Venter, said the claims that resulted in payments consisted of a "wide range of allegations of abuse suffered by people in state care over the past 70 years".
The vast majority of claims related to alleged abuse between the 1960s and 1980s and "they raise serious concerns about the care provided to children in a wide range of state facilities including social welfare, health, education and church-run homes as well as foster care and family homes", she said.
The ministry would not provide details on the reasons for each claim, or the period over which the abuse occurred, saying "every abuse case has unique characteristics and the nature of the information collated, as a result of an investigation by the ministry, is extremely sensitive".
The file on each case was typically 1000 pages or more, Venter said.
In 2006-07, the ministry established a historic claims team dedicated to investigating allegations of neglect or abuse by people in the care of Child, Youth and Family and its predecessors.
Of the 43 apologies, just one was made in 2009. Six were made in 2010, nine in 2011, 13 in 2012, nine last year, and five in the year to September 25.
Among the payments were two for $25,000 to the victims of Hawke's Bay foster parents Annette-Maree and Anthony Frantzetis, both of whom will be sentenced next week for wilfully ill-treating children in their care between 1998 and 2008.
Venter said the Frantzetises' victims experienced physical and emotional abuse, which "the ministry acknowledged by apologising to the people involved".
The couple were found guilty after a seven-day judge-alone trial in Napier District Court last month.
Annette-Maree Frantzetis, 52, was found guilty on six charges, including three representative charges of wilfully ill-treating three children, two charges of assaulting two children with a wooden spoon and one charge of assaulting a child with a hearth brush.
Anthony, 51, was guilty of a representative charge of willfully ill-treating one child.
Judge Tony Adeane said evidence provided by the children's teachers gave the "clear overall impression of neglect and mistreatment".
- The Dominion Post
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