Privacy Statement for the Leaving Violence Program
The term “victim-survivor” is used in this Privacy Statement to acknowledge the strength and resilience of people who have experienced or are currently living with family, domestic and sexual violence (FDSV) or gender-based violence. We recognise that people who have experienced violence have different preferences about how they would like to be identified and may choose to use ‘victim’ or ‘ survivor’ separately, or another term altogether.
Last Updated: 6 June 2025, 11:30 AM
Who are we?
We are the Leaving Violence Program, which is funded by the Australian Government as part of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and Children 2022-32 (the Program). The Program aims to support eligible victim-survivors to make choices about leaving violent intimate partner relationships by providing financial and other supports and services.
The Program is delivered by Telstra Health Pty Ltd ABN 38 163 077 236 (Telstra Health), a subsidiary of Telstra Limited, on behalf of the Commonwealth of Australia through the Department of Social Services. In this Privacy Statement, references to 'us', 'we' and 'our' include the Department of Social Services, Telstra Health and any other contractors and service providers engaged in delivering the Program.
We are committed to protecting your privacy. Where you or an authorised person provide us with personal information (that is, information about you or another person from which you or that other person is identifiable), this information will be handled carefully and will be collected, used, stored and disclosed in a manner consistent with the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act).
Who does this privacy statement apply to?
This Privacy Statement applies to all individuals whose personal information (including health and sensitive information) we might collect in the course of delivering the Program (referred to in this Privacy Statement as ‘you’ or ‘your’). This includes:
- victim-survivors and other individuals who contact us about or make an application to the Program for a financial payment or other support (Program Users);
- family, friends and other individuals who are known to Program Users, and about whom a Program User shares information with us in connection with their application to or interactions with the Program;
- representatives of Program Users (including authorised nominess,gaurdians, agencies such as specialist FDSV services, housing authorities and services, local councils, government departments and agencies,or legal, medical and allied health professionals) applying to or making an enquiry about the Program on a Program User’s behalf (Program User Representatives);
- victim-survivors and other individuals who have accessed financial payments or other supports from:
- the third party providers who have been appointed by the Department of Social Services to deliver separate regional trials (Regional Trials) for the delivery of the Leaving Violence Program ( Regional Trial Service Provider); or
- any previous third party providers of equivalent Programs that were funded by the Department of Social Services to provide financial support to victim-survivors (including the “Escaping Violence Program”(EVP)) (Prior Program Providers ),
(who are collectively referred to as ‘Other Program Users’); and
- any other individual we may interact with in the course of delivering the Program.
This Privacy Statement provides specific information about the information-handling that occurs in respect of the Program, however, should be read alongside each participating organisation or agency’s Privacy Policy – for links to those Privacy Policies, please see the section of this statement titled ‘Where can you get more information about our privacy practices’ below.
What personal information do we collect?
The personal information (including sensitive and health information) we collect generally depends on the way in which you engage with the Program and what you provide us with.
Program Users
If you are a Program User, the types of personal information we collect might include:
- your full name, date of birth and gender;
- your contact information, including address, postcode, email, telephone number and mobile number, and your preferred contact methods;
- details regarding your ethnicity, country of birth, whether you are an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, your culturally and linguistically diverse status, your disability status accessibility requirements, your preferred name, and your preferred language spoken at home;
- information and records that are required to verify your identity, and details of the identity verification outcome;
- your employment information;
- your financial information (e.g. information about your household and employment income), and your bank or financial institution account details if you are eligible for payment supports, and any invoices for which payment support is sought as part of your application for the Program;
- your visa information and residency status ;
- your health records, housing and residency records if they are revelant to your application;
- information you choose to provide regarding the intimate partner violence experienced;
- details about your current or prior living situation including whether you have a permanent or fixed address, your household composition, and whether any other family members, including children, are involved in or affected by intimate partner violence, and any changes to your living arrangement;
- your circumstances that relate to the form of intimate partner violence you’re experiencing and how you will change your living arrangement in the next 12 weeks (or have changed your living arrangements in the last 12 weeks);
- information about your partners, children, dependants, carers and identified nominee or guardian (if applicable);
- any username(s) and password(s) that you might be provided with or create in accessing the Program;
- your location information (if this is permitted by your device settings);
- details of how you access and use the Program, including information about any payments or services provided to you;
- information about how you have previously accessed or used one of the Regional Trials or the EVP;
- any records or supporting documentation provided to support your application for the Program, including legal or financial documents (e.g. AVO/DVO applications or court orders, police reports, bank statements, pay slips) and reports or recommendations from relevant professionals (e.g. specialist FDSV practitioners, financial counsellors, social workers, lawyers, psychologists, Services Australia officers or doctors);
- records of any communications or interactions we have with you, including any feedback you provide to us about the Program and your experience in accessing it; and
- any other information that you or your Program User Representative provides to us.
Program User Representatives
If you are a Program User Representative, the types of personal information we collect might include:
- the information you provide when applying to the Program or otherwise interacting with us on behalf of a Program User. This may include your name, contact details, employment information and any evidence, credentials or other supporting information about your authority to act on behalf of that Program User;
- any username(s) and password(s) that you might be provided with or create in accessing the Program on behalf of a Program User;
- your location information (if this is permitted by your device settings);
- records of any communications or interactions we have with you, including any feedback you provide to us about the Program and your experience in accessing it; and
- any other information that you, the organisation that employs or engages you, or the Program User you interact with us on behalf of, provides to us about you.
Other Program Users
If you are an other Program User, the types of personal information we might collect from the relevant Regional Trial Service Provider or Prior Program Provider might include:
- your full name, date of birth and gender;
- your contact information, including address, postcode, email, telephone number and mobile number;
- any unique identifier you may have been assigned by the relevant Regional Trial Service Provider or Prior Program Provider; and
- information about how you have previously accessed or used the services provided by the relevant Regional Trial Service Provider or Prior Program Provider, including information about any payments or services provided to you.
Other individuals
From time to time, we may collect the personal information of other individuals who we interact with in the course of funding, operating and delivering the Program (such as visitors to our website, job applicants or independent contractors), or whose personal information is provided to us in connection with a Program User’s application to access the Services.
The type of information we collect will ultimately depend on the nature of our dealings with you or the relevant Program User. For example, this might include:
- if your personal information has been shared with us by a Program User or Program User Representative in connection with their application to or interactions with the Program- any information that has been provided and is relevant to the Program User's application to access the Program(including our assessment of their eligibility). This may include:
- your name;
- your relationship to the Program User;
- your address and location; and
- descriptions or reports of behaviour or incidents involving you.
- communications – a record of any communication or interaction we have with you (such as if you make an enquiry), along with your name, contact details, and any other identifying information provided;
- if you are applying for employment or are an independent contractor – your name, contact details, date of birth, sex, professional background, expertise and qualifications, any references which are provided by third parties about you, and any other information which you provide to us or which is relevant to our assessment of your potential employment or our engagement of your services;
- if you access our website – any information you submit to us via that website or otherwise provide. While we might also collect certain data about your visit to our website (through the use of cookies and other tracking devices), this will be collected on an anonymised basis only; or
How do we collect your personal information?
Wherever possible, we will try to collect personal information from you directly, rather than from another person or source, unless it is unreasonable or impractical to do so (such as where a Program User Representative is acting on your behalf).
The typical ways in which we may collect your personal information include if you:
- deal with us directly over the phone, online, or via other means (e.g.through our websites or social media channels);
- complete any online or written forms; and
- apply for a position in connection with the Program (either as an employee or as a contractor).
As described above, there may be occasions when we gather personal information about you from a third party, for example:
- where we collect the outcome of your identity verification check from our identity verification service providers(which currently include ConnectID Pty Ltd and Daon(Australia) Pty Ltd);
- from a person you have authorised to deal with us on your behalf(including a Program User Representative);
- from other support services or programs that refer you to, or otherwise provide assistance to enable you to contact or access, the Program including other programs by Telstra Health such as 18OORESPECT or
- where your personal information is provided to us in connection with a Program User's application to access the Program.
- from our IT or telecommunications provider;
If you are an Other Program User, we may collect your personal information from the relevant Regional Trial Service Provider or Prior Program Provider.
We record calls made to the Program for quality assurance and training purposes. In most circumstances, you can choose not to have your call recorded by informing us of this choice.
Why do we collect personal information and how do we use it?
We generally collect and use the above types of personal information (which may include sensitive and health information) to:
- enable us to provide the Program (including receiving and assessing any applications from, and providing any supports or services to, Program Users);
- verify identities;
- confirm the authority of any Program User Representative to properly act on behalf of the relevant Program User;
- communicate with you through various channels;
- identify program funding usage trends;
- provide tailored and personalised services;
- help us to manage our service standards;
- prevent fraudulent activity and ensure the Program is being utilised as intended – this includes enabling us to identify any duplicate applications to the Program delivered by us and services having been delivered by the Regional Trial Service Providers or the Prior Program Providers; and
- assist us to comply with our legal and reporting obligations.
- inform government policies that are relevant to the Program and other complimentary programs that may be funded by the Commonwealth
We may use de-identified and aggregated information (where no one is identifiable) to improve the Program, for reports and in evaluation of the Program and its various elements. De-identified information may also be used in academic articles and presentations at conferences.
Who do we disclose personal information to?
Generally, personal information that is collected in connection with the Program may be shared between Telstra Health, the Department of Social Services and with contractors and service providers engaged to provide the Program (collectively, Contracted Service Providers). In this regard, it is noted that:
- any personal information held by Telstra Health or the Contracted Service Providers in connection with the Program is held on behalf of the Department of Social Services, so that Telstra Health and its Contracted Service Providers can provide the Program. If Telstra Health stops providing the Program on behalf of the Department of Social Services, and the Department of Social Services requests, we will transfer the information to the Department of Social Services or to such contractors as the Department of Social Services appoints to perform the Service; and
- where Contracted Service Providers (such as ConnectID Pty Ltd, Daon(Australia)Pty Ltd, BlackHawk and Salesforce-See overseas disclosure and security below for more information on how use these subcontractors) are engaged, they are bound by the Privacy Act and obligations of security and confidentiality, and contractual measures are in place to ensure they comply with those obligations.
Other circumstances in which your personal information may be shared include:
if you are a Program User:
- and you have authorised a Program User Representative to act on your behalf, we will generally share information about you with that Program User Representative;
- to prevent duplicate or fraudulent applications for financial payments or other supports, we may share your personal information with Regional Trial Service Providers;
- we may share your personal information with other agencies(including other Commonwealth agencies) for the purpose of profile duplication checking,verification and fraud prevention, compliant handling, and quality assurance purposes; and
- to facilitate intake processes, verification of a Program User Representative's authority to act on behalf of a Program User, and the delivery of services relating to the Program, we may share your personal information with an identifiable support agency;
- if you are a Program User Representative we may also share your personal information with;
- the Program User that you have interacted with us on behalf of ,or your employing or engaging organisation; and
- other agencies(including other Commonwealth agencies)and identifiable support agencies, for the purpose of profile duplication checking, verification and fraud prevention, compliant handling, and quality assurance purpose; and
- generally, in connect with any disclosuers to government departments, agencies and/or Ministers involved in the management or oversight of the program
- Otherwise, we will only disclose your personal information to third parties for the primary purpose for which we collected it, or for a secondary purpose if permitted by law, which includes:
- where you have consented;
- where you would reasonably expect us to do so, and where related to the primary purpose of collection, or, in the case of sensitive information, directly related to the primary purpose;
- where required or authorised by or under an Australian law or a court/tribunal order, such as to comply with mandatory reporting requirements in relation to suspected cases of child abuse and neglect, or in connection with a police warrant or subpoena; or
- where a permitted situation exists under the Privacy Act, such as lessening or preventing a serious threat to the life, health or safety of an individual, or to public health or safety, or locating a person reported as missing.
De-identified information (where no one is identifiable) may also be shared with research partners , contracted services providers and more broadly in an aggregated from for the purposes of enabling reporting by the Department of Social Service's from time to time
Do we disclose your information overseas?
While we do not generally disclose personal information to overseas recipients, limited disclosuers may occur in the following circumstances:
- to enable the distribution of stored value cards as part of any financial support provide to Program Users, we may disclose de-identified information to Blackhawk Network (the card provider for the Program), who stores and handles data in
- if you are Program User or Program User Representative and require customer support from Blackhawk Network, and either:
- contact Blackhawk Network directly; or
- ask us to raise a support on your behalf
- limited personal information( such as name, contact details, and the nature of an information about your request) may be disclosed to Blackhawk Network's customer support personnel located in El Salvador and stored or handled overseas in accordance with Blackhawk Network's privacy policy; and
- in exceptional cases, to overseas emergency service or law enforcement agencies if this is required or authorised by law
Information transmitted via internet or telecommunications services including text (SMS) may also travel overseas via third party carries or network providers. While Telstra Health will make all outbound SMS to Austrialian numbers, it is unable to control third party networks and applications used by the victim survivor when receiving correspondence (eg. service provider, application or device) which may reroute data via offshore
Access, correction and complaints
You can request to access or correct personal information we hold about you, please contact us via telephone at 1800 253 283.
Information we collect from you as part of the Program will be retained in accordance with statutory requirements.
We hope to resolve any complaints without needing to involve third parties, but you may also be able to lodge a complaint with a relevant regulator such as the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner ( www.oaic.gov.au or 1300 363 992 ).
Before we disclose or share any personal information with you, we will require you to sufficiently verify your identity and provide further information. If you do not provide the information requested, we may not be able to process your request. We will aim to assess all requests for access or correction within 30 days and will provide our response (along with any reasons) in writing.
Storage and security of your personal information
We take reasonable steps to ensure the security of all information we collect, including that the information is protected from unauthorised access, loss, modification or disclosure. For example;
- your personal information is maintained in a secure environment,hosted externally on a cloud-based platform(operated by Salesforce) with infrastructure located in Australia, and can only be accessed only by authorised personnel; and
- our Contracted Service Providers are contractually require to ensure that adequate security measures are in place to ensure the security of any information they hold
- We also hold your information in accordance with the Archives Act 1983(Cth), and take reasonable steps to make sure that personal information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete, up-to-date and relevant
However, the transfer of information over wireless networks and the internet is not inherently secure. We cannot guarantee the security, during transmission, of any personal information provided to us via our website or services; please bear this in mind when transmitting information by this means to us. Information transmitted via internet or telecommunications services including text (SMS) may also travel overseas via third party carriers or network service providers. [HL1]Note to DSS: once the position re retention/destruction/transfer is finalised, we can update this section to incorporate any relevant information.
Website cookies
When you interact with our site, we strive to make your experience easy and meaningful. We, or our third party service providers, may use cookies and similar technologies to track site visitor activity and collect site data. Examples of information that we may collect includes technical information such as your computer’s IP address and your browser type, and information about your visit such as the products you viewed or searched for, the country you are in, what you clicked on and what links you visited to get to or from our site.
If we identify you with this information, any use or disclosure of that information will be in accordance with this Privacy Statement and applicable privacy laws.
A cookie is a text file that a website transfers to your computer’s hard drive for record-keeping purposes. Cookies help us gather and store information about visitors to our websites and are intended to improve your website browsing experience whilst visiting. Our cookies assign a random, unique number to each visitor’s computer. They do not contain information that would personally identify the visitor, although we can associate a cookie with any identifying information that is or has been provided by a customer while visiting our site.
We, or our third party service providers, use cookies that remain on your computer for a specified period of time or until they are deleted (persistent cookies). These cookies record clickstream information (data reporting the URLs, or names of the pages, on our site that have been visited). We may also use cookies that exist only temporarily during an online session (session cookies) – these cookies allow you to log in to your account and they allow us to identify you temporarily as you move through the site. Most browsers allow users to refuse cookies, but doing so may impede the functionality of some portions of our site.
We may also engage third parties, such as Google Analytics, to track and analyse site activity on our behalf. To do so, these third parties may place cookies or web beacons to track user activity on our site. The information generated by these cookies (including your truncated IP address) is transmitted to and stored by Google, and other third party providers, on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your, and other users’ use of our website, mobile website, compiling reports for us on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage.
We use the data collected by such third parties to help us administer, report on and improve the quality of the site and to analyse usage of the site.
Where can you get more information about our privacy practices?
Our respective Privacy Policies also contain more information about each participating organisation and agency’s privacy practices, including how you may request access to, or correction of, personal information that a specific entity may hold about you, how you can lodge a privacy complaint and how we manage such complaints. Whether your personal information has been collected by one of the below organisations or agencies will depend on which service you have used. If you would like more information, please contact us at 1800 253 283.
You can obtain the latest version of our Privacy Policies by visiting our websites below:
- Commonwealth Department of Social Services (the funder of the Service);
- Telstra Health (the coordinator of the Program);
- ConnectID (the identity verification service provider for the Program);
- Daon(the identity verification service provider for the Program);and
- Blackhawk Network (the stored value card provider for the Program);
This Privacy Statement is current as at June 2025 and may be updated from time to time. Please consult this page regularly for any changes to the Privacy Statement.
Can’t find what you are looking for?
Speak to a Leaving Violence Support worker
You can reach us Monday - Friday, 8:30am - 5:30pm. The Leaving Violence Program is closed on public holidays.
If you would like to request for information, provide feedback, complaints or make an appeal, please call the helpline to speak to one of our support workers who will be able to assist you.
Financial Stress
