Staff at the ACT's Victims of Crime Commission are shouldering ''unacceptably high'' workloads with some workers managing more than 100 cases at a time, according to the commission's annual report.
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The commission also criticises the financial scheme for victims of crime, saying it ''re-victimises'' people and is bogged down in red tape.
The report says even part-time case workers are handling up to 80 cases at a time and client numbers are predicted to grow in light of the fact that only about 19 per cent of victims are aware of the commission's services.
''The management of such high workloads is an occupational health and safety issue,'' the report says.
''The workload is not sustainable and is well above comparable other [sic] services.''
It also says the current commissioner, John Hinchie, will focus on resolving the workload problem in the coming financial year.
Previous annual reports have put workloads as high as 120 cases for some staff members.
The report also criticises the statutory Financial Assistance Scheme that pays out compensation to victims of violent crime.
''The scheme appears to have become adversarial, unnecessarily bureaucratic, difficult to access and often overly dependent upon a perpetrator being convicted of a criminal offence before eligibility for the scheme is assessed,'' it says.
The scheme can pit victims against ACT Government lawyers and may force them to relive their ordeal in a court hearing before a magistrate.
Many victims decide not to pursue compensation because the process is ''too hard'', the report says.
The previous Victims of Crime coordinator, Robyn Holder, has described the court process as damaging to victims. The commission believes the scheme should be overhauled, saying other jurisdictions, such as Queensland and NSW, have moved to administrative-based schemes where government officials examine the evidence and decide whether victims of crime should receive payouts.
The report also offers a breakdown of payouts under the Financial Assistance Scheme.
More than $736,360 was awarded to 70 people in the 2010-11 year with victims receiving an average award of $10,519.
The group included 16 police officers who won payouts for assaults and injuries suffered while they were trying to arrest or restrain people.
Cases included a $50,000 payout to a young man who was attacked by a mob at a party.
He was kicked and punched by 20 people and was forced to undergo multiple operations for his injuries.
Another man was granted $50,000 after he was violently attacked while walking through a car park, leaving him with brain damage, loss of vision, multiple fractures and facial injuries.
Many of the payouts went to victims of sexual assault, some of whom suffered repeated assaults over a number of years.
One young girl was awarded more than $48,000 after her father sexually abused her for eight years, leaving her emotionally and psychologically traumatised.
Another girl who was raped at a park won a $49,102 payout to help with post-traumatic stress disorder, psychiatric care and depression and anxiety.
Other victims who won payouts included relatives of a victim of convicted killer Scott McDougall and the cook who was left partially paralysed after street preacher Isa Islam stabbed him in 2009.
