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Written question asked by Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party) on Friday, 12 January 2024, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 17 January 2024 (named day). It was answered by Tom Pursglove (Conservative) on Wednesday, 17 January 2024 on behalf of the Home Office.


Windrush Compensation Scheme

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 29 April 2021 to Question 183169 on Windrush Compensation Scheme, how many and what proportion of applicants to the Windrush Compensation Scheme have died in the period between applying for and receiving compensation.

Answer

As at the end of November 2023, in line with the latest published Transparency data, out of the 7,534 claims received by the Windrush Compensation Scheme, we are aware of 53 claimants* who have unfortunately passed away after having submitted a claim.

The Windrush Compensation Scheme staff are working hard to ensure claims are prioritised for claimants with critical or life-limiting illnesses.

In the unfortunate circumstances where a claimant has passed away after submitting a compensation claim, before the claim is fully resolved, the team continues to work closely with the appointed representative, usually members of the family, to ensure the compensation payment is made as quickly as possible to the family member.

Our priority is to ensure people receive the maximum compensation as quickly as possible. We have reduced the time to allocate a claim for a substantive casework consideration, from 18 months to under 4 months. The 4-month period includes all essential eligibility checks, together with a Preliminary Assessment to make an initial payment of £10k wherever possible.

*Please note that this data is manually recorded and is reliant on the person receiving the information on a claimant’s death, notifying the Windrush Compensation Scheme to record this information.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
9349
Session
2023-24
Related items
Windrush Compensation Scheme
Thursday, 29 April 2021
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects
Windrush compensation scheme
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk