The number of people who have died while still waiting to be compensated over the Windrush scandal has nearly doubled in two years amid ongoing payout delays, the government has admitted.
The Windrush compensation scheme was set up after it emerged in 2018 that the Home Office had wrongfully denied British citizens, mostly from the Caribbean, access to work, healthcare and benefits, with some even suffering detention and deportation.
But it has faced heavy criticism for being too slow and inefficient, with the Home Office accused of treating claimants “callously” this week following calls for the scheme to be taken out of the department’s hands.
Responding to a parliamentary question by Labour in a week marking the 75th anniversary of the Windrush voyage, Home Office minister Robert Jenrick said 41 of the 6,122 total claimants had died while waiting for compensation, up to the end of April.
While Mr Jenrick insisted that officials were “working hard to ensure cases are prioritised for claimants with critical or life-limiting illnesses”, the number of claimants to have died without redress has nearly doubled since May 2021.
“Windrush victims dying before their claims have been settled is a sad indictment of a scandal defined by a lack of empathy, humanity and consideration for the Windrush generation caught up the Home Office’s ‘hostile environment’ strategy,” said Black Equity organisation chief executive Dr Wanda Wyporska.
“To spare more Windrush families from the added trauma of losing loved ones before their claims are settled, the Home Office must be stripped of control of the compensation scheme and replaced by an independent body focussed on swiftly righting the wrongs done to innocent Windrush survivors and their families.”
It came as new figures revealed that hundreds of people have been left waiting for more than a year for compensation. Analysis found that, of the 2,235 claims in progress as of April, 347 (16 per cent) had been in the system for at least 12 months – including 162 for over 18 months.
King Charles and Queen Camilla hosted a reception for the 75th anniversary of the Empire Windrush voyage— (PA)
However, the proportion of claims in the system for just one to three months rose from 19 per cent in April 2022 to 33 per cent in April this year.
There are also now fewer people left waiting more than a year than there were in April 2022, when 541 claimants were in such a position – amounting to 28 per cent of claims in progress at the time.
While figures suggest £63m has now been paid out across 1,681 claims, The Independent revealed in December that rejections for payouts had soared in 2022 while offers had plunged – with 376 offers in the year to October and 783 rejections, including zero-sum awards and refusals on eligibility grounds.
With this week marking the 75th anniversary of the Empire Windrush’s arrival at Tilbury Dock – the voyage now symbolic of post-war migration to Britain – organisers called the milestone on Thursday a “bittersweet moment, tainted by the injustice of the Windrush scandal”.
In his parliamentary statement, Mr Jenrick added: “In the unfortunate circumstances where a claimant has passed away after submitting a compensation claim, before the claim is fully resolved, the team continues to work closely with the appointed representative, usually members of the family, to ensure the compensation payment is made as quickly as possible to the family member.”
