Javid is urged to set up emergency Windrush fund

HOME Secretary Sajid Javid has been urged to set up an emergency hardship fund to help people facing destitution as a result of the Windrush scandal.

MPS said those left with financial problems through no fault of their own cannot wait months for compensation.

Yesterday, the Commons Home Affairs Committee rushed out an urgent report to highlight the issue.

It referred to cases including that of Anthony Bryan, a painter and decorator who was held in detention and feared he would be removed from the UK despite living in the country since 1965.

He estimates he has spent £3,000 on legal and application fees and owes £5,000 in overdue council tax and loans, and last week had his car taken by bailiffs, the committee’s report said.

It also flagged up the experience of Sarah O’connor, who moved to Britain from Jamaica 51 years ago when she was six, and has lived here ever since. It said: “Unable to get work and told she is not eligible for benefits, she built up large debts, she had to sell her car and was facing bankruptcy.”

Last month the Government urged people who were adversely affected by the Windrush failings to outline their experiences to help inform the establishment of a compensation scheme.

This call for evidence closed last week but, with a consultation to follow, the committee raised concerns it will be “many months” before compensation is paid.

Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who chairs the committee, said: “Some of the Windrush generation are facing destitution. People are having to settle legal bills, or are facing bailiffs due to debts run up when they were forced to give up work or had their social security payments stopped through no fault of their own. The Government must step in to help people immediately.

Ministers faced a furious backlash over the treatment of the Windrush generation, named after a ship that brought migrants to Britain from the Caribbean in 1948.

Commonwealth citizens who arrived before 1973 were automatically granted indefinite leave to remain under the 1971 Immigration Act.

But some of those who arrived in the years after the Second World War have been challenged over their status. The Home Office has identified 63 cases where people may have been wrongly removed or deported.