There is a more detailed case note about this under Case Law, on this site.
In the case of DLM (2018) VCAT the Vice President of VCAT Judge Harbison found that with old powers of attorney, that is powers created before the new legislation came into force on 1 September 2015, recovery actions could only claim compensation for activities of the attorney after that date.
If there was abuse of the power before September 2015 no recovery action could be taken in VCAT.
However, Judge Harbison was at pains to point out that a recovery action for matters before this date may be instituted in other jurisdictions (eg, the Supreme Court of Victoria); it was just that VCAT did not have the necessary jurisdiction, arising out of her findings.
The new legislation, the Powers of Attorney Act 2014 (Vic), does specifically provide that victims can claim compensation, so there is no issue if the power was created after September, 2015.
There is no such specific power in the old legislation and VCAT has no jurisdiction to hear cases for recovery of compensation in the case of any power dated before 1 September 2015. As indicated above it may still be possible to institute such a claim in another jurisdiction/court. The disadvantage of this may be that a jurisdiction other than VCAT is more costly and may involve a more lengthy process.