Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 31
31
Deferred
Paragraph: 102
£10,000 preliminary Windrush award should be provided to all acknowledged victims.
Conclusion
The Home Office should provide the preliminary £10,000 impact on life award to all those the Department has previously acknowledged were wrongly subjected to immigration enforcement measures or were wrongly denied proof of their lawful status as a result of the Windrush scandal. The award should be issued irrespective of whether the claimant can evidence harm or financial losses caused by the Home Office’s failure to ensure that individuals could demonstrate their lawful status; it should be made in recognition of the Department’s appalling treatment of the Windrush generation when it lost sight of this cohort and in recognition of the fact that many of those affected are part of an ageing generation that has contributed heavily to this country, but that cannot wait many years for compensation to be calculated. The £10,000 should be paid within two months and any further calculated compensation entitlement must follow.
Government Response Summary
The government's response focuses on compensating legal fees up to £500 for immigration applications, rather than addressing the recommendation for a preliminary £10,000 impact on life award.
Paragraph Reference:
102
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
For each immigration application that is compensated, for example Indefinite Leave to Remain, legal fees will be compensated up to a value of £500. This is because the immigration system has been designed to make sure people do not require legal assistance to make an application for an immigration product.