THE HOME OFFICE announced on Thursday (4) that it will start make payments as part of the Windrush scandal compensation scheme.
In a written statement to Parliament, home secretary Sajid Javid said he was committed to providing appropriate compensation promptly.
Javid announced: “The government deeply regrets what has happened to some members of the Windrush generation and when I became home secretary I made clear that responding to this was a priority. The compensation scheme I launched in April is a key part of this response.
"The compensation scheme has been open to receive claims since April 2019 and the Home Office is now in a position to start making payments.
“I am committed to providing members of the Windrush generation with assurance that they will be appropriately and promptly compensated where it is shown that they have been disadvantaged by historical government policy.”
Javid launched the scheme to "right the wrongs" of the scandal in April, where thousands of victims will share in an estimated £200 million compensation fund.
According to reports, up to 15,000 eligible claims are expected to be lodged.
People waiting for the compensation has responded with frustration at the delay in making arrangements to initiate payments.
Janet Mckay, whose partner spent five weeks in detention and was booked in 2017 on to a plan back to Jamaica, told The Guardian: “Everyone is struggling to fill in the forms. I had no idea they weren’t ready to pay out as soon as the forms were sent in.”
Omar Khan, director of the Runnymede Trust, the race equality thinktank, said he was shocked that this issue had only now been resolved.
“It’s not good enough to commit in principle to compensation if you don’t put in place the levers required to get money into people’s pockets. They’ve had months to get it right. It raises questions about how urgently and seriously the government is responding to this injustice,” he was quoted as saying by The Guardian.
