Remove Windrush payout scheme from Home Office control, campaigners urge

Public figures sign open letter calling for scheme to be moved from Home Office to independent body

The prime minister and the home secretary have been urged to remove the Windrush compensation scheme from Home Office control.

About 70 public figures have signed an open letter backing a call by the Windrush Justice Community Collective (WJCC) for a radical overhaul of the scheme, which was set up to compensate those, mainly Black Britons, who were wrongly classed as illegal migrants and stripped of citizenship rights over decades.

The collective – whose members include Age UK, the Black Equity Organisation, Black Lives Matter UK, the Runnymede Trust, Southwark Law Centre and the Windrush Justice Clinic – is calling for the scheme to be placed under an independent body overseen by a judge or commissioner.

It is also calling for a statutory public inquiry, non-means-tested free legal help for Windrush scandal claimants, and for survivors to be given their preference of citizenship or indefinite leave to remain.

The letter calls for a “complete reset” of the redress scheme, saying the denial of free legal support to Windrush survivors – unlike victims of the Post Office Horizon and infected blood scandals – has meant more than half have been awarded nothing.

Among the signatories are the Labour MPs Clive Lewis and Nadia Whittome, the activist Patrick Vernon, the writers Afua Hirsch, Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff and Reni Eddo-Lodge, the musicians Joy Crookes and Akala, the sculptor Anish Kapoor, the UK Black Pride co-founder Phyll Opoku-Gyimah and the Southbank Centre’s chair, Misan Harriman.

The letter adds: “The Home Office continues to harm Black and Asian British citizens …. Over 60 people have already died waiting for compensation. Each subsequent month of delay costs more lives. Inspired by the solidarity shown by Hillsborough and Grenfell families, we will not stay silent.”

Survivors of the Hillsborough and Grenfell disasters have labelled the Windrush compensation scheme a “complete failure”.

In a letter last month to the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, Grenfell United, which represents survivors of the 2017 London tower block fire and bereaved relatives, and members of Hillsborough Justice, which represents survivors of the 1989 stadium disaster and families affected by it, joined forces with WJCC.

They told Mahmood: “Our communities know too well the pain of state betrayal. We have seen loved ones die awaiting justice. We have fought for decades against cover-ups, institutional defensiveness, and a culture that prioritises protecting the government over repairing the harm done to innocent people. That is why we speak with one voice.”

In April, the Guardian revealed that the Home Office had refused to pay compensation for more than half the claims made by survivors of the Windrush scandal.

The average payout for a successful Windrush claim was £32,100, the National Audit Office found. It said in a report: “Some cases initially turned down by the Home Office were reconsidered and compensation awarded when solicitors filed the same cases.”

Research by the legal reform charity Justice and the law firm Dechert LLP found that one claimant’s offer went from zero to £295,000 with legal support. Another claimant’s rose from £300 to £170,000.

This month, the independent Windrush commissioner, Clive Foster, told MPs that survivors of the scandal should be given legal support to reduce the number of claimants denied payouts and bring the scheme in line with other state compensation programmes.

Foster said the decision to make the Home Office responsible for delivering compensation to people affected by mistakes made by staff in the same department was misguided.

A WJCC event on Friday at the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton, south London, was expected to feature speakers including the BCA’s chief executive, Wanda Wyporska; the Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill, Bell Ribeiro-Addy; and the Windrush scandal survivor Thomas Tobierre , urging the government to act on Foster’s call for an overhaul.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The home secretary is determined to put right the appalling injustices caused by the Windrush scandal.”