Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Deferred
Urge Wendy Williams to review Windrush Compensation Scheme as part of Home Office progress.
Recommendation
Many people who have applied for compensation have yet to receive a penny and we have heard too many stories of people struggling with impossible demands for evidence, poor communication from the Home Office and a lack of understanding of the issues they faced. For some, the experience of applying for compensation from the Home Office has become a source of further trauma rather than redress. Many of the concerns raised with us about the Windrush Compensation Scheme as part of this inquiry have echoes of the same criticisms made of the Home Office by Wendy Williams in her report into how the Windrush scandal occurred. It is a damning indictment of the Home Office that the design and operation of this scheme contained the same bureaucratic insensitivities that led to the Windrush scandal in the first place, and suggests that the culture change promised in the wake of the scandal has not yet occurred. We are deeply concerned that delays and difficulties in the compensation scheme have compounded the injustices faced by members of the Windrush generation. As a result, we urge Wendy Williams to look at the compensation scheme as part of her review of the Home Office’s progress on her recommendations. (Paragraph 23) An unknown number of applicants
Government Response Summary
The government's response focuses on its revised planning assumption for the number of eligible claims, stating it now estimates between 4,000 and 6,000, without directly addressing the committee's concerns about the difficulties of the application process.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
The current planning assumption is that there are between 4,000 and 6,000 eligible claims, and this has been reached following comprehensive revisions to our scenario analysis. The scenario analysis uses operational, qualitative, and quantitative information from the Windrush Scheme and the Windrush Compensation Scheme as well as further insights from communications activity, outreach, and engagement with people affected. While estimating the number of affected people remains extremely challenging, we think that this revised planning assumption more accurately reflects the number of eligible claims. The revision to our planning assumption does not change the department’s commitment to ensuring all affected members of the Windrush generation can make a claim and receive the maximum compensation to which they are entitled.