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What is This Claim About?
Immigrants legally came to the U.K. after World War II to be a part of the labour force, but decades later, their legal rights were taken away and they were labelled “illegal.” This caused hundreds of thousands of people to face discrimination, job losses, hardships and even deportation.
The Windrush compensation scheme was created to help Windrush scandal victims get justice and damages they are due.
Who’s Eligible?
According to the U.K. government, you may qualify for the Windrush compensation scheme if:
- You, your parents or grandparents came to the U.K. from a Commonwealth country before 1973;
- You came to the U.K. from any country before 31 December 1988 and are settled here;
- You are the close family member of someone eligible to make a claim and you have had significant losses yourself; or
- You are representing the estate of someone who would have been eligible to make a claim.
How Much Compensation Will I Receive?
No amount of compensation is certain, as each Windrush scandal victim faced different circumstances.
According to Hudgell Solicitors, compensation could be:
- £1,000 to £10,000 for deportations
- £500 an hour (for the first three hours) for detentions
- £250 per month of homelessness
- £250 to £10,000+ for effect on life
How Do I Join?
If you were a part of the Windrush generation and you lost your legal status, job or housing, you may be eligible for compensation.
Fill out a Windrush Compensation Scheme claim form on the government’s website.
Contact one of the following law firms for more information and to learn how you can be a part of a group action claim:
Bhatt Murphy
Birnberg Pierce
Deighton Pierce Glynn
Duncan Lewis Solicitors
Hudgell Solicitors
Imran Khan and Partners
JM Wilson Solicitors
Leigh Day
McKenzie Beute and Pope
Thompsons Solicitors
More law firms may be added.
Lawyers say the Windrush compensation scheme has been utterly deficient in providing justice to the Windrush scandal victims, according to The Guardian.
Nine law firms have sent a letter to the home secretary detailing how the Windrush compensation scheme is failing and further damaging victims’ trauma.
According to lawyers for the victims of the Windrush scandal, the Windrush compensation scheme has affected claimants after considerable delays and challenges have occurred, The Guardian reported. Lawyers are struggling to fulfill hundreds of compensation claims for victims of the Windrush scandal.
As of July, only a small group of Windrush scandal victims had been paid out. The Windrush compensation scheme has been underway since April 2019, with over a thousand people filing claims over their injustices.
Out of 1,480 claims in the Windrush compensation scheme, only 143 people have received damages.
Windrush scandal victims were wrongly categorised as illegal immigrants from Caribbean countries by the Home Office.
The Windrush generation came to the U.K. from 1848 to 1971 to work legally and decrease labour shortages after World War II. Hundreds of thousands of people in the Windrush generation were here legally, and many had remained in the U.K. for decades. But in 2018, Windrush families had their legal status taken away and faced deportation. Many people lost their jobs, homes and pensions due to losing their legal rights.
The Windrush compensation scheme was designed to help these families get justice.
“Members of the Windrush generation have lost jobs, homes, benefits and access to basic public services including healthcare and education,” the lawyers’ letter states, according to The Guardian. “Some people have been detained and deported. Almost all have suffered significant impacts to their daily lives over many years.”
The letter continues: “This includes stress and anxiety, humiliation, loss of income, high levels of debt, breakdown of relationships, addiction problems, and degrading treatment. Some individuals been denied access to healthcare for serious physical and mental health conditions. These losses are not straightforward to identify, evidence and quantify.”
Lawyers say the Windrush compensation scheme claimants “appear to be lost in a kind of bureaucratic limbo” because they have had to wait so long to receive the money that is owed to them, according to The Guardian.
A majority of the Windrush generation is at retirement age, and the Home Office has verified at least five victims died before receiving money in the Windrush compensation scheme.
The Windrush compensation scheme lawyers have pressing concerns on the basis that “the public body responsible for assessing losses and determining applications for compensation is the same body which caused the losses in the first place,” The Guardian reported.
The lawyers concluded the letter by saying the Windrush compensation scheme is not functioning as it should be and is leaving hundreds without the damages they are due.
The Windrush scandal has been added to by the fact that so many are still without compensation despite being victims of a great injustice.
The Home Office responded to the lawyers’ concerns by saying it is devoted to fixing the injustices the Windrush scandal victims faced.
The Home Office also announced it has initiated a new strategy that includes giving all claimants a caseworker and monthly updates on the Windrush compensation scheme’s progress.
“We are continuing to process individual claims as quickly as possible, but cases deserve to be processed individually, with the care and sensitivity they deserve, so that the maximum payment can be made to every single person,” a Home Office spokesman said, according to The Guardian.
Those who are eligible are urged to apply in the Windrush compensation scheme.
If you or a loved one came to the U.K. before 1973 as a part of the Windrush generation and had your legal status stripped, you may be eligible to apply.
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