More than half of Windrush compensation claims rejected by Home Office, report finds

The National Audit Office report also found that of the 9,224 concluded claims, 56% of claimants had received a nil award. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

The Home Office has refused to pay compensation for more than half the claims made by victims of the Windrush scandal, new analysis by the UK’s public spending watchdog has shown.

The National Audit Office’s (NAO) “government’s compensation and financial recognition schemes report” found that by January 2026, 11,475 claims had been received to the scheme. It was set up in 2019 to compensate mainly Black Britons whose lives were upended by being wrongly classed as illegal migrants by the Home Office.