London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Oct 06, 2025

Just 5% of victims of UK Windrush scandal have received compensation, report says

Just 5% of victims of UK Windrush scandal have received compensation, report says

A UK government compensation scheme for migrants, many of whom came from the Caribbean to rebuild Britain after World War II, has paid out on just 5% of potential claims, British lawmakers say.
The Windrush generation were invited to move to Britain in the 1940s and 1950s, but have subsequently faced hostile immigration crackdowns.

In recent years, the British government has been heavily criticized for its treatment of migrants who traveled across the Atlantic on the Empire Windrush passenger liner, and their descendants. Some of the individuals, who have a legal right to live in the UK, have struggled to prove their immigration status and have been refused medical care, denied housing and deported or threatened with deportation.

A damning new report from the House of Commons' influential Home Affairs Select Committee published Wednesday said the scheme, created in 2019, had "become a source of further trauma rather than redress, and others have been put off from applying for the scheme altogether."

As of the end of September, only 20.1% of the estimated 15,000 people expected to be eligible for compensation had applied, and only 5.8% of claimants had received a payment, the cross-party committee found. MPs also found that 23 people eligible individuals had died before receiving compensation.

The committee report said the scheme was plagued by a "litany of flaws" with an "excessive burden" on applicants to provide evidence of losses suffered, protracted applications and payment processing, insufficient staffing of the scheme and a failure to provide exceptional payments to individuals in urgent need.

The report found that rather than rectify past mistreatment, the scheme had "compounded the injustices" people had faced. It acknowledged reforms introduced last December to expedite payments, but said the changes had not gone far enough. The committee recommended further action, suggesting the scheme -- currently under Home Secretary Priti Patel -- be transferred to an independent organization to rebuild trust and bolster applications.

"The treatment of the Windrush generation by successive governments was truly shameful," MPs said in the report. "No amount of compensation could ever repay the fear, humiliation, hurt and hardship that was caused to individuals who were affected."

The committee added: "That the design and operation of this scheme contained the same bureaucratic insensitivities that led to the Windrush scandal in the first place is a damning indictment of the Home Office, and suggests that the culture change it promised in the wake of the scandal has not yet occurred."

Committee chair Yvette Cooper, a member of the opposition Labour Party, said: "It has been four years since the Windrush scandal emerged and it is truly shocking how few people have received any compensation for the hardship they endured at the hands of the Home Office.

"Urgent action is needed to get compensation to those who have been so badly wronged," she added.

Cooper continued that she found it "staggering, given the failures of the Windrush Scandal, that the Home Office has allowed some of the same problems to affect the Windrush Compensation Scheme too."

Alba Kapoor, senior policy officer at The Runnymede Trust, reacted to the report's publication in a Twitter post from the race equality think tank, asking: "How many more deaths will there be before the horrors of the Windrush scandal are addressed in a competent, compassionate and supportive manner?"

The organization said in a subsequent post that it backed the committee's recommendation to turn over responsibility for the scheme to an independent body.

"The figures speak for themselves in highlighting the incompetence of the Home Office in addressing its own catastrophic failures," it added.

Following the report's publication, a Home Office spokesperson said in a statement to CNN: "The Home Secretary and the department remain steadfast in our commitment to ensure that members of the Windrush generation receive every penny of compensation that they are entitled to.

"The Home Secretary overhauled the scheme in December to ensure more money is paid more quickly -- since then the amount of compensation paid has risen from less than £3 million to over £31.6 million, with a further £5.6 million having been offered. There is no cap on the amount of compensation we will pay out.

"We are pleased this report welcomes the changes made to the scheme in December and we continue to make improvements, such as simplifying the application process, hiring more caseworkers and removing the end date. We firmly believe that moving the operation of the scheme out of the Home Office would risk significantly delaying vital payments to those affected."
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
×