Only three families of dead Windrush victims win claim

JUST three out of the 71 claims by families of dead victims of the Windrush scandal have been settled by the Government.

Home Office data also show that 1,587 claims were made to the scheme by the end of September and about £1.6 million had been paid out to 196 people – about 12 per cent of those who had applied.

The fund has a budget of at least £200 million.

A total of 124 claims have been subject to an appeal, while 81 eligible applicants were told they were not entitled to any money because they could not demonstrate that they had been adversely affected by the scandal.

Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, has previously described the scheme as “complicated” and said she wanted to see payments “sped up”.

Earlier this year, Windrush campaigner Paulette Wilson died, aged 64, just weeks after delivering a petition to Downing Street calling for action to address the failings that led to the scandal and demanding swift compensation for victims.

Friends said she died “a broken woman” and had been struggling to fill out complex claim forms. Campaigners have also accused the Government of failing to spread the word about the scheme among people now living in Africa or the Caribbean who may have been victims of the scandal.

Most of the claims received by the end of September came from people living in the UK (1,247), with 43 from the Caribbean and three from Africa. The deadline for applications has been extended until at least April 2023.

It follows a critical report published earlier this year that found that the Windrush scandal was “foreseeable and avoidable” and victims were let down by “systemic operational failings” at the Home Office.

The Government has apologised for the 2018 scandal in which deportation threats were made to the children of Commonwealth citizens.

Many people who had lived and worked in the UK for decades were told they were here illegally because of a lack of official paperwork.