Select committee: Home Affairs Committee
Conclusion 9
Fifth Report - The Windrush Compensation Scheme
Published 24 Nov 2021
Paragraph 41
Addressed to Home Office
Home Affairs Committee The Windrush Compensation Scheme All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The changes to the Windrush Compensation Scheme which were announced in December 2020 were long overdue and the increase in applications since then is to be welcomed. The Department’s work to understand better why eligible people have yet to apply for compensation is also to be welcomed. However, that application volumes are still much lower than expected points to deep and persistent problems. The evidence provided to us makes it plain that the delays and difficulties in applying for the scheme, together with a deep mistrust of the Home Office, form a toxic combination which may be putting off those who were caught up in the Windrush scandal from applying, for fear of being re-traumatised by the process. The Home Office’s finding that, for some individuals, the impact of the Windrush scandal was primarily about status and belonging does not absolve it of its responsibility to do all that it can to provide compensation to those eligible and entitled to receive it. The onus is on the Home Office to rebuild trust with the Windrush community and to make applying for compensation as easy a process for the claimants as it possibly can be. So far, that has patently not been the case.
From: Home Affairs Committee, Fifth Report - The Windrush Compensation Scheme (HC 204), paragraph 41, 24 November 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 7 February 2022 (deadline 24 January 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government's response to the Committee's Windrush Compensation Scheme report sets out mixed positions, declining a transfer to an independent body while describing changes already made to the scheme and some further work it is taking forward.
- On moving the scheme to an independent organisation, it says this would bring "more delays in issuing payments", and points instead to the Adjudicator's Office review process and an Independent Person advising on the scheme.
- It does not widen the historical cases review, calling that approach "costly, inefficient" and unlikely to locate affected people, and says it has focused on outreach and engagement instead.
- On the £10,000 preliminary award, it says it will process and offer it where "it is clear that the Home Office has wrongly enacted an immigration enforcement action", and that it cannot identify those who have not made contact with it.
- On caseworker capacity, it says the team has 80 caseworkers, with 24 more due to join over January and external recruitment under way to reach 120.