Hudson’s story

Hudson complained to our office about Ahpra’s management of his application for registration. Hudson said that he had experienced difficulty in meeting the proof of identity requirements, as one of the required identity documents had expired. Hudson said that Ahpra had advised a family member that he could provide the identity document, alongside a letter explaining that it had expired, together with other forms of identification.

Hudson said he lodged his application in this manner, but Ahpra told him that his application could not be approved because the expired identity document was not acceptable.

Hudson said that he would not have lodged the application if he had received the correct advice from Ahpra. However, Ahpra refused to refund Hudson’s registration application fee.

Our office initially made an early resolution transfer of the complaint to Ahpra with Hudson’s consent. However, our office did not receive sufficient information about the advice Hudson had initially been provided with. As a result, we made preliminary inquiries into the matter.

What we found

We found that Ahpra gave Hudson’s family member incorrect advice regarding the registration application requirements. Ahpra told Hudson’s family member it would be better to wait until Hudson had a valid identity document, but also that he could provide the expired document.

Ahpra apologised that the advice provided to Hudson’s family member was not correct and acknowledged that without this information, Hudson may not have made an application for registration. On this basis, Ahpra agreed to refund Hudson’s application fee.

Complaint outcome

Our office was satisfied that Ahpra had adequately addressed the loss Hudson incurred because of the incorrect advice.

We also found that Ahpra had taken appropriate steps to minimise the likelihood of similar information being incorrectly provided to applicants in the future. Ahpra told us they would use Hudson’s matter in training material for its customer service team.

Hudson confirmed that these actions resolved his concerns.