Authorities have used face-scanning technology to verify identities for bushfire payments.

Services Australia has given evidence to a royal commission into the 2019/2020 bushfires.

Earlier sessions had heard that many struggled to apply for support payments because they lost identity documents when their houses burned down.

Services Australia, the government agency responsible for welfare payments, says it tested scanning technology for matching people's faces with stored biometric data from licence, passport or visa photos.

“There was a webcam where it actually took the image and through a portal matched it up with the other existing photographic ID,” Michelle Lees, deputy chief executive officer of Services Australia, said.

“We attempt to get money to people as quickly as possible and also avoid them needing to attend a service centre in person.”

Ms Lees said the process was only done with full consent. She did not give any more technical details.