Payments for Windrush victims denied compensation

More than £400,000 has been secured for victims of the Windrush ungraded wrongly denied outgo done the Home Office compensation scheme.

It follows investigations by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, which recovered the strategy had sometimes failed to look astatine each the grounds provided and immoderate victims had been wrongly told they were ineligible for compensation.

The findings person been published successful a caller report, pursuing 46 complaints astir the strategy to the PHSO since 2021.

A Home Office authoritative said: "This authorities is committed to putting close the appalling injustices caused by the Windrush ungraded and making definite those affected person the compensation they rightly deserve."

Up to the extremity of July 2024, the Windrush Compensation Scheme had paid £93.58m crossed 2,634 claims.

But the PHSO study reveals different victims were unfairly affected by the scheme’s rules.

PHSO Rebecca Hilsenrath said: “The Windrush Compensation Scheme was acceptable up to close the wrongs of a ungraded that inflicted harm connected precise galore people.

"But our grounds shows that further harm and injustice are inactive being caused by failings successful the mode the strategy is working.

“We recovered recurrent reasons for this, suggesting these were not one-off issues but systemic problems."

Some of the complaints are inactive nether reappraisal - but truthful far, the PHSO has helped unafraid £432,592 for victims wrongly denied payment.

And it is present calling for the Home Office to reappraisal and marque improvements to the scheme, to assistance enactment victims and their families.

In 2018, it emerged thousands of people, mostly from the Caribbean, had been wrongly classed arsenic amerciable immigrants.

The Windrush Compensation Scheme was acceptable up April 2019 and astir 15,000 radical were thought to beryllium eligible.

But it continues to beryllium heavy criticised for processing delays, debased offers and unfair rejections.

In 2021, the Home Affairs Committee of MPs recovered the strategy had itself go a further root of trauma for eligible victims.

The Home Office says it volition guarantee victims of the Windrush ungraded person their voices heard and the compensation strategy is delivered efficiently.