Javid accused of misleading Windrush victims and urged to ‘scrap caps’ on compensation

Sajid Javid was urged to “scrap the caps” and compensate the Windrush Generation properly after being accused of “misleading” victims over the terms of a payment scheme.

Labour MP David Lammy (Tottenham), who was granted an Urgent Question on the subject, told the Commons the Home Secretary’s claims last week there would be no limits to the amounts handed out to those who suffered as a result of the scandal “provided false reassurance”.

He said a document “slipped out” by the Home Office later “set out incredibly strict caps to be awarded for different losses”.

Mr Lammy said: “Let this be the final betrayal of the Windrush Generation; scrap the caps and compensate them properly for the wrongs that have been done to them.”

He said the guidelines offer £500 for anybody who was denied the right to go to university, £1,000 for someone wrongly obliged to go home and “a mere £10,000 for people who were wrongly deported”.

The MP said victims have described these figures as “peanuts” and “insultingly low”, comparing the deportation compensation as being less than a month’s salary for Mr Javid.

He asked: “Is this the price that you put on my constituents being deported for no wrongdoing?

“Is this how the Government values the lives of black Britons?”

Appealing to immigration minister Caroline Nokes, Mr Lammy added: “You promised to do right by the Windrush Generation but quite rightly many of them think they have been misled.”

In response, Ms Nokes said the different payments can be cumulative and therefore add up to a higher payout, adding there is a “discretionary fund” which victims can also apply to for other losses they have incurred.

The scheme was also criticised by shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, who said it “compares very unfavourably with the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme”, which pays out in line with losses under common law, has an appeals process, and offers legal aid.

She said none of this was available “in any meaningful sense” with the Windrush scheme, asking: “How can the minister possibly justify this?”

Ms Abbott (Hackney North and Stoke Newington) also said the payments for loss of benefits or healthcare should be calculated on exact actual losses, not a flat figure, calling the scheme “shoddy, unfair and unjust”.

In response, Ms Nokes said any award can be sent to an “independent adjudicator” for re-evaluation, and added that if a victim incurred private health costs they can be claimed back, saying the Home Office will work to establish “the actual level of loss” and pay out accordingly.

Tory MP Philip Hollobone (Kettering) asked whether reports that up to 600 people may have already made “false or fraudulent” claims to the scheme are accurate.

Responding, Ms Nokes said: “The scheme has only been open for a very few days so far, but we have received claims, we have registered those claims, we have sent out claim forms and are expecting those back.

“I am not aware of any fraudulent claims to this scheme, and I am very conscious we have put in place a rigorous process which will enable all claims to be assessed fairly and indeed with full rigour.”

SNP home affairs spokesperson Joanna Cherry said the treatment of EU nationals in the UK threatened to have a similar impact that had been felt by the Windrush generation.

Ms Cherry said: “If the Government were serious, truly serious, about rectifying the wrongs of this scandal, they would look at this scheme anew, and they would also scrap the ‘hostile environment’, which already is threatening to have the same impacts on EU citizens applying for settled status.”

Ms Nokes responded, saying Ms Cherry would welcome a consultation being carried out by the Law Commission looking into the Home Office’s immigration schemes.

Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2019, All Rights Reserved. Picture (c) Joe Giddens / PA Wire.