LONDON (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Ministers, according to Labour MP Diane Abbott, are waiting for the Windrush generation to die off before revamping the compensation scheme.
Other MPs demanded that the scheme be handed up to an independent body rather than the Home Office.
The government rejected the calls, but acknowledged that reforms were needed.
The scheme aims to assist those who have been affected by the Windrush scandal, which resulted in people being deported after having lived in the UK for years.
Others were denied welfare, and access to the NHS and employment.
The Windrush generation refers to the thousands of people from Caribbean countries that arrived in the United Kingdom between 1949 and 1971.
The Home Office did not keep track of people granted leave to remain and did not issue any paperwork, making it impossible for Windrush immigrants to later verify their legal status.
A compensation scheme for people who have been harmed has been in place for almost three years, but it has long been criticised for being excessively difficult and cumbersome, and at least 23 victims have died without receiving compensation.
Ms Abbott, whose mother was a member of the Windrush generation, accused the government of disregarding requests to speed up the process during a parliamentary discussion on the scheme.
The former shadow Home Secretary said to her it implied that they didn’t respect that generation, that they didn’t comprehend the shame that generation felt, and that they were plainly waiting for this generation to die.Â
Diana Johnson, a Labour MP and chair of the Home Affairs Committee, was one of several opposition MPs who urged the initiative should be transferred from the Home Office to an independent body.the SNP’s Stuart McDonald asked, supporting her plan.
The SNP’s Stuart McDonald asked, supporting her plan that wasn’t it blindingly obvious that those people whose lives had been ruined by a government department would be reluctant, if not afraid, to contact that same agency again.
Home Office minister Kevin Foster, in response rejected calls for the Home Office to be divested of its role in the scheme, claiming that doing so would result in people’s payments being severely delayed.
In December 2020, the scheme was revised, and £36 million was paid out, he added.
