LEADING WINDRUSH campaigners say the Windrush Compensation Scheme (WCS) is failing survivors all over again by not compensating victims for the loss of state and private pensions.
As the fifth anniversary of the scheme’s launch approaches, campaigners and charities say survivors who lost jobs or were locked out of employment and subsequently missed out on workplace pensions because they were caught up in the scandal must be reimbursed.
Loss Currently, when compensation is being calculated for loss of earnings via the scheme it does not consider a loss of pension or any potential future earnings.
Campaigners say drastic reform is needed, as the majority of the Windrush victims are of, or approaching pensionable age.
Age UK – the UK’s key charity for older people – published a report earlier this year called ‘Justice Denied: Reforming the Windrush Compensation Scheme’.
It highlights the hidden and detrimental knock-on effect the scandal has had on Windrush victims in their retirement years, who were once a staple part of Britain’s workforce.
The report says: “As a result of losing employment and entitlements to benefits due to the Windrush scandal, many drew their private pensions early in order to make ends meet.
“This has led to a reduced private pension pot. In some cases, a loss of employment may have also led to the loss of a private pension.
“However, loss of private pensions is not currently included in the scheme’s calculation of loss of earnings. This is despite repeated calls from campaigners for the inclusion of private pensions.”
(L-R) Michael Anthony Braithwaite, Janet Mckay Williams, Auckland Elwaldo Romeo, Glenda Caesar, Patrick Vernon and BEO chief executive Dr Wanda Wyporska, hand in a petition signed by Windrush survivors and celebrities at number 10 Downing Street, April 2023, (Pic: Isabel Infantes/AFP via Getty)
Last month, a debate tabled by Baroness Floella Benjamin took place in the House of Lords about the Home Office Scandal which addressed the issue of the effectiveness of the Windrush Compensation Scheme and of lost pensions.
During the Lords debate Baroness Benjamin said: “While being locked out of employment, claimants have also missed out on their workplace pensions which they have accumulated over many years. So will the government consider including loss of future earnings, which is not currently compensated for, under the scheme?”
Responding on behalf of the Government, Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Conservative), Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Home Office, said: “We cannot turn back the clock, but we can strain every sinew to provide the people affected with the help they need and the compensation they deserve, while ensuring that the failings that happened previously can never be repeated.”
‘Set up to fail’ Prominent Windrush campaigner, Professor Patrick Vernon OBE, who wrote a foreword for the report told The Voice, the WCS was “set up to fail”.
He said: “The Post Office Compensation Scheme and Contaminated Blood Scandal both recognise that loss of pensions should be acknowledged and included in compensation packages.
“It gives a clear message to Black people that our lives are not worthy and we do not deserve compensation.”
The respected campaigner, like many other Windrush activists prefers to refer to the scandal as the “Home Office Scandal” and not the Windrush Scandal. He believes that the widespread injustice, which was first exposed six years ago, is the fault of the Home Office and not the Windrush generation.
The scandal came about because of the introduction of hostile environment policies designed to deter illegal immigration in 2012.
But many of the Windrush generation, who had arrived in Britain mainly from the Caribbean legally after World War II, were also impacted by the policies, treated like illegal immigrants and had their lives destroyed by these policies.
Sarah O’ Connor, a Windrush Scandal victim, sadly died in 2018 (Pic: Getty)
Many of these British citizens lost their homes, jobs, were denied access to benefits, pensions, NHS healthcare, and some were wrongly detained and deported to Caribbean countries they had not visited for decades.
Vernon added: “The Home Office scandal has dehumanised the Windrush generation, but the Government don’t acknowledge that, they are not even aware of it.”
In order for the scheme to be classified as fit for purpose, Age UK wants an independent body to handle claims, which they say would help older people have better trust in the running of the scheme.
The charity is also demanding compensation to be made available for losses to both state and private pensions, along with faster application and appeals processes and improved routes for challenging compensation scheme decisions as well as other key suggestions.
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Vernon said the government need to act on the report’s recommendations, before “many more die” without receiving compensation.
In January this year, the government admitted that 53 people have died while waiting for compensation payments.
The Windrush Scandal prompted protests all over the country (Pic: Getty)
Some of the high-profile deaths of Windrush victims include renowned campaigner Paulette Wilson, who died unexpectedly at the age of 64 in July 2020.
Another campaigner, Sarah O’Connor, was just 57 when she died in 2018. Dexter Bristol, 58, also died that year after collapsing on the street in London.
Hubert Howard died in 2019, three weeks after being granted British citizenship.
Also in 2019, 64-year-old musician Jashwa Moses died of cancer about a month after getting citizenship.
Anger
Vernon believes every Windrush death is a sad reminder of the Home Office’s “failure” – which he says is causing “more frustration and anger.”
“They keep on using the expression all the time that they are ‘righting the wrongs’ and if they were righting the wrongs which is a basic term for restorative justice, then they would listen” he said.
“They don’t listen, they don’t listen to the lawyers, they don’t listen to the survivors and the victims. There is so much evidence that the scheme is not working.”
The government promised to ‘right the wrongs and launched the compensation scheme on 3 April 2019.
Windrush Generation members arriving in Britain in 1948 (Pic: Getty)
According to the latest Home Office data, published on March 6 2024, the total amount paid to claimants through the scheme has increased to over £80 million.
The latest data covers the period to the end of January 2024, and states £80.06 million has been paid across 2,233 claims.
However, this is still a fraction of the £500 million put aside to compensate victims.
The department originally predicted an estimated 15,000 people would be eligible for compensation, but as of January 2024, only a total of 7,862 claims have been made.
Vernon said this is worrying and he fears many simply do not trust the system because the compensation scheme is being handled by the very “perpetrators” of the scandal.
“I was campaigning from day one that the scheme should have never been given to the Home Office in the first place, because they are the perpetrators and they are still perpetrating and it is even re-traumatising everyone again” he said.
There have been five different home secretaries since 2018 – when the scandal was first exposed, with only one, Sajid Javid, meeting victims in 2019.
Vernon says it is time for the current Home Secretary to sit down face-to-face with Windrush victims and hear their stories.
Concerns
He added: “I hope James Cleverly does meet with some Windrush victims to hear their stories and he will then appreciate that the government has not delivered on this.
“The question is now will James Cleverly listen to the concerns of the community? He always talks about his connections to Windrush, so let’s see what he is going to do.”
Branding the scheme “lame and pathetic” the notable campaigner and social commentator said the failure to implement the 30 recommendations from the ‘Windrush Lessons Learned Review’ by Wendy Williams shows the Government and Home Office “are not interested” in making the necessary changes.
In March 2020, Williams’ damning review into the scandal was published and outlined 30 recommendations for the Home Secretary to implement to make improvements.
Paulette Wilson, another high profile Windrush Scandal campaigner, who died in 2020 (Pic: Getty)
But by January last year, then-home secretary Suella Braverman announced to Parliament that three previously accepted recommendations, including reconciliation events aimed at enabling victims of the scandal to articulate its impact on their lives in front of specialist services and senior Home Office staff, would be scrapped.
As a result, the Black Equity Organisation (BEO), the leading Black civil rights UK organisation, was granted a judicial review to challenge the decision to drop three key recommendations.
BEO are urging the current home secretary James Cleverly to reverse the decision of his predecessor.
Vernon disclosed to The Voice, he is working with a number of organisations to develop a Windrush Manifesto in the run-up to the general election, which will have several key demands including for “legal aid to be granted to applicants making claims.”
In January this year, ITV broadcasted TV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, highlighting the real-life story of hundreds of postmasters and sub-postmasters being prosecuted and accused of stealing money between 2000 and 2014.
The financial losses were actually caused by the Post Office’s new IT system called Horizon.
Since the airing of the TV series and outrage from the British public, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged £75,000 redress payments to postmasters who weren’t convicted but suffered as a result of the scandal.
So far, £179 million has been paid to around 2,800 victims, with further measures introduced to accelerate payments
The prime minister has also introduced landmark legislation – the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill – to automatically quash convictions relating to the Horizon Scandal.
The Home Office (Windrush) scandal was also portrayed in the Bafta-winning TV drama Sitting in Limbo shown on the BBC in 2020. It was based on the life of Anthony Bryan, who was wrongfully detained and threatened with deportation after living in the UK for 50 years.
Some Windrush victims say they can’t help but compare the government’s response to the two scandals, which have glaring similarities.
“Compared to all of the other schemes that have come out, let’s say Grenfell, the Post Office and the Blood scandal scheme, the Windrush Scandal scheme is the lowest paid one, the lowest,” Windrush survivor Glenda Caesar told The Voice.
Caesar arrived in the UK with her mother as a baby from Dominica in 1961 and always thought she was British. She only discovered she wasn’t, when she was refused a passport in 1998.
Support
Following that, she was sacked from her part-time job as a GP administrator and was unable to work or claim benefits for 10 years.
She relied heavily on her children for financial and emotional support.
In 2019, the mother-of-four from Hackney, east London, was initially offered £22,000 through the scheme, which she rejected and described as “insulting” and “minimal.”
She said: “That didn’t even cover my losses for the ten years that I wasn’t allowed to work or claim benefits, so I opposed that and I joined other victims and we formed a group and we challenged them.”
Caesar’s offer was later revised and she has now settled for an undisclosed six-figure amount – which she said was not enough for all that she endured.
She said: “I got validated, but not to what I wanted, but because of the stress that I knew I was going to face, they offered me a six-figure sum, I accepted it.
“My son was affected, they offered him a six figure sum, I didn’t want him to take it, but because he suffered from anxiety and depression he said ‘Mum I don’t want to go through this anymore’.”
The campaigner says a major issue of the scheme is the high burden of proof for bigger compensation claims.
“We’ve got so much we have to prove before we can even get what we are entitled to,” said Caesar.
The proud mother says her own traumatic experience has influenced her to advocate for others as part of support group Windrush Lives.
Glenda Caesar, Windrush Scandal victim and activist(Pic: Glenda Caesar)
Caesar is also part of the Windrush Justice Clinic, which is a pro-bono service led by legal organisations to help people file claims, get their offers reviewed or those wishing to make new claims.
She told The Voice, she is seeing “nil awards” being offered to people because their impact on life story is being disregarded.
“Windrush survivors and families have suffered for too long,” she said firmly.
Community organisations and leaders are continuing to highlight the fight for justice for the Windrush generation, with various petitions and a special rally to commemorate the sixth anniversary since the scandal’s exposure in London.
The public are being urged to attend the candlelit vigil on Saturday 6 April, at 12 noon in Windrush Square, Brixton.
Rights
One lawyer helping hundreds Windrush victims to secure their rights and apply for compensation, believes
Jacqui McKenzie, a partner at law firm Leigh Day and head of immigration and asylum law, who has helped over 400 victims make compensation claims sees a glimmer of hope.
She told The Voice: “What started off as a hopeless operation with the actual perpetrator of the wrongs, deliberating over a slow, unwieldy and unfair process, has now improved somewhat. This has mainly been down to the evidence that practitioners and activists have campaigned for, and the work of the Home Affairs Committee.
“Some of these changes have included increased tariffs for impact on life and improvements to how loss of earnings is calculated. But there is still room for improvement. The Home Office must speed up the decision-making and must grapple with what it describes as difficult aspects, but aren’t, namely the loss of occupational pensions, and compensating people who can show a detriment but fall outside the narrow confines of the scheme.”
A Home Office Spokesperson said: “The government remains absolutely committed to righting the wrongs of the Windrush scandal and making sure those affected receive the compensation they rightly deserve.
“We have paid more than £80 million in compensation and we continue to make improvements so people receive the maximum award as quickly as possible, whilst providing extensive support to help people access and apply to the compensation scheme.
“We firmly believe moving the operation of the Scheme away from the Home Office would risk significantly delaying vital payments to people – there would be considerable disruption to the processing of outstanding claims whilst a new body was established and made operational.”
The department insists the scheme will remain open as long as it is needed, so no one is prevented from making a claim.
