Windrush compensation claims taking five times longer to process than Home Office predicted, says NAO

Windrush compensation claims are taking five times longer to process than the Home Office predicted, which is leading to lengthy delays for those affected by the scandal, a watchdog report has revealed.

The National Audit Office (NAO) found that of the 1,033 applications submitted since March 2020, only 10 per cent have reached the payment decision stages, and it has taken on average six months for claims to reach this stage. Overall, 70 per cent of claimants are yet to receive a payment.

The delays are coming about despite the fact that the Home Office has received only a fifth (19 per cent) of the claims it estimated it might receive since the Windrush Compensation Scheme was launched in April 2019 – at 2,163 compared with the 15,000 expected.

The scheme was launched to compensate the thousands of Commonwealth citizens caught up in the Windrush scandal, which saw people who had been settled in Britain for decades treated as illegal immigrants and prevented from accessing basic rights.

The NAO report found that it was taking on average 154 staff hours to process a case through to payment approval, compared to the 30 hours the Home Office originally estimated that it would take, due to cases being “more complex” than forecast.

Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said the findings were “shameful” and accused ministers of “heaping painful insult upon injustice”.

“Many people have received insultingly low compensation offers from the government, and it’s heart-breaking for family members to have lost loved ones who have never received justice,” he added.

It comes after it emerged that 500 Windrush victims have been waiting more than a year for their compensation claims to be processed, with 214 waiting more than 18 months and five people more than two years.

The NAO found that, to the end of March 2021, the government had paid £14.3m to 633 people overall – 29 per cent of those who had applied – although some of these people may receive further payments. The Home Office says it has offered more than £26m.

The department has told 117 claimants they are not eligible for the scheme and has made decisions that 210 are not entitled to monetary compensation as they did not suffer losses. Since March 2020, 230 claimants have appealed against a decision or offer.

The Home Office’s internal figures show that it has made final decisions on 38 per cent of all claims it has received to date, although some of these are still subject to a review or have not yet resulted in a payment, the watchdog said.

Currently, caseworkers handle approximately 10 cases at any one time and have a productivity target of making decisions on two claims per week. The department intends to speed up its claims processing in the next few months.

It is considering increasing its headcount of caseworkers by up to 10 before the end of June 2021, as well as increasing the number of cases handled by a caseworker at any one time to 20 cases and making decisions on 200 cases per month by July 2021, the report states.

In December 2020, the Home Office made radical changes to the scheme, introducing a new early payment so that as soon as an applicant can show an impact on life they receive a minimum £10,000 payment, and increasing the maximum payment for an impact-on-life claim.

Of the money paid out so far, £11.6m (81 per cent) has been paid to claimants since these changes were made. The NAO estimates that since December 2020, the Home Office has paid £2.6m in preliminary payments, and £4.24m in increased impact on life payments.

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said this marked “some progress”, but that the Home Office must “sustain its efforts” to improve the scheme to ensure it “fairly compensates members of the Windrush generation in acknowledgement of the suffering it has caused them”.

He added: “The Windrush Compensation Scheme was rolled out before it was ready to receive applications and, two years after it was launched, people are still facing long waits to receive their final compensation payment.”

Yvette Cooper MP, chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said it was “completely unacceptable” that the vast majority of those affected by Windrush still had not received compensation three years after the scandal emerged.

“The Home Office was right to introduce reforms in December to try to speed up the process, but this report shows they need to go much further so that those who have been so badly wronged by the British state can now get the support and recognition they deserve,” she added.

Windrush campaigner Patrick Vernon said the NAO’s findings highlighted that the compensation scheme should be removed from the Home Office.

“The scheme was not co-designed with the victims but based on current processes which are part of the nature of structural racism in the Home Office and the ongoing implementation of the hostile environment policy,” he said.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are determined to put right the terrible injustices faced by the Windrush generation by successive governments, which is why the home secretary overhauled the Compensation in December, and we are now seeing the positive impact of those changes.

“In March alone, more than £8m was paid in compensation – more than doubling the amount paid in the 20 months since the scheme was launched.

“We know there is more to do and will continue to work hard to ensure payments are made faster and the awards offered are greater.”