Financial redress for former child migrants
IICSA · Child Migration Programmes Investigation Report · Issued 1 March 2018 · Addressed to: UK Government
Source — verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation, I
The Chair and Panel have recommended that the UK government establishes a financial redress scheme for surviving former child migrants, providing for an equal award to every applicant. This is on the basis that they were all exposed to the risk of sexual abuse. Given the age of the surviving former child migrants, the UK government was urged to establish the financial redress scheme without delay and expects that payments should start being made within 12 months (of the original report being published), and that no regard is given to any other payments of compensation that have been made in particular cases.
IICSA, Child Migration Programmes Investigation Report · 1 Mar 2018
Published evidence summary
Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:
- In May 2023, the government confirmed that the financial redress scheme for former child migrants was operational and that payments had been made (Government Response to IICSA Final Report, HM Government, May 2023).
Response — verbatim from government
●UK Government — initial response
The Department for Health and Social Care announced details of the scheme on 31 January 2019 and the scheme was opened to applicants on 1 March 2019. Each eligible former British child migrant is entitled to receive £20,000, regardless of their individual circumstances. As of 15 July 2019, the scheme had received 1,728 expressions of interest, issued 1,643 application forms, received 1,475 completed applications, and made or had pending 1,452 successful payments. DHSC expects the scheme to conclude payments by April 2020.
UK Government · 22 Jul 2019 Written response →
●UK Government — follow-up
On 22 July 2019, the UK government stated that an ex gratia payment scheme opened to applicants on 1 March 2019. This included any former British child migrant who was alive on 1 March 2018 or the beneficiaries of any former child migrant who was alive on 1 March 2018 and had since passed away. Each eligible former British child migrant was entitled to receive £20,000, regardless of their individual circumstances or payments received from other governments or through private legal action. As of 15 July 2019, the scheme had made over 1,400 payments to eligible applicants.
UK Government · 22 May 2023 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
No published activity has been recorded against this recommendation yet.
Each entry above links to a primary source — gov.uk written statement, consultation response document, or inspection report. The Index does not characterise government intent; it tracks what has been published.
How this page is built
Source and Response are verbatim from primary documents. The Evidence trail records published activity since — written statements, consultation outcomes, inspection findings, parliamentary references. The Index does not paraphrase or characterise intent; it tracks what has been published. Where the evidence is the absence of action (a missed deadline, a slipped timetable), that absence is documented from primary sources rather than inferred.
This recommendation's data is verified periodically against primary sources. The Index is monitored for staleness weekly.