A government compensation scheme set up for the victims of the Windrush scandal has seen just 5% of potential claimants awarded money due to a “litany of flaws”, MPs have said.
The scheme was launched on 3 April 2019 to compensate members of the Windrush generation who were wrongly denied their lawful immigration status as a result of Home Office policies.
But the MPs found that, as of the end of September, only 20.1% of the initially estimated 15,000 eligible claimants had applied, just 5.8% had received any payment and 23 individuals had died without receiving compensation.
The cross-party Commons Home Affairs Committee said the scheme, under Home Secretary Priti Patel, should be transferred to an independent organisation to increase trust and encourage more applications.
A report by the committee said the design of the scheme contained the same “bureaucratic insensitivities” that led to the Windrush scandal in the first place, which was a “damning indictment of the Home Office”.
The committee added: “The treatment of the Windrush generation by successive governments and the Home Office was truly shameful.
“No amount of compensation could ever repay the fear, the humiliation and the hurt that was caused both to individuals and to communities affected.”
Claimants face a “daunting application process”, “unreasonable requests for evidence” and were “left in limbo in the midst of inordinate delays”, the committee’s report said.
“Too often, injustice has been compounded rather than compensated,” the MPs said. “This is unacceptable and must not continue.”
Senior policy officer at race equality think tank, the Runnymede Trust, Alba Kapoor said: “These figures speak for themselves in highlighting the…
Source : skynews
