Philomena Lee was 18 years old when she became pregnant and was sent to the Sean Ross Abbey Mother and Baby Home in Roscrea, County Tipperary, in Ireland. There Philomena gave birth to her son Anthony, and there they both lived until Anthony reached the age of three. Then Philomena was forced to give him up for adoption, and Anthony was sold to a couple in the United States. Philomena would never see him again.
Philomena’s story brought the scandal of Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes to a global audience through the Oscar-nominated film Philomena, where she is played by Dame Judi Dench. The film also stars Steve Coogan, who plays Martin Sixsmith, the BBC journalist who helped Philomena Lee in her heartbreaking search for her son. I am delighted that ‘Philomena’s Law’ has the backing of Philomena Lee and her family, including her daughter Jane and grandson Joshua who were in the House of Commons to see me bring it forward last week. It also has the public backing of Steve Coogan.
It was an honour to share Philomena’s story of heartbreak and courage in Westminster last week and name the draft legislation ‘Philomena’s Law’, in recognition of the impact her story has had. The Bill seeks justice for thousands of women like Philomena, and their children, who were resident in Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes, and later crossed the Irish Sea to settle in Britain.
Many moved here as a direct result of the mistreatment and abuse they experienced in these institutions. In some cases, they came because they thought that disappearing from Ireland was the only way to protect their family’s reputations. They carried with them a great deal of internalised shame, as well as the secret of what had happened to them. For lots of survivors, it wasn’t until much later in life that they shared the details of these traumatic years with their families, often revealing long lost relatives in the process.
So it was a significant day in 2021 when survivors finally received an official apology from the Taoiseach for the “profound generational wrong visited upon Irish mothers and their children”. This was followed by the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme – to provide compensation for what happened to them – which opened to applications last March. The scheme represents a measure of accountability for what happened and aims to acknowledge the suffering and improve the circumstances of former residents of Mother and Baby Homes.
However, for more than 13,000 survivors living in Britain today, what was meant to be a token of acknowledgement and apology has ended up becoming an additional burden. This is because, under our current rules, any money accepted through the payment scheme is considered as savings and could see them lose any means-tested benefits such as housing benefit, or financial support for social care they currently receive.
For some eligible survivors, the situation is deterring them from making any application at all. It is one of the reasons that take up for the scheme is as low as 5% in Britain. For others, having received a compensation offer, they are now having to weigh up whether it is worth accepting the money, or whether to do so would sink them into a worse financial situation overall.
‘Philomena’s Law’ seeks to right this wrong. It proposes the introduction of what is called a ‘capital disregard’ which would mean that any compensation from the scheme gets ringfenced, so that survivors can apply and accept the payments without fear that it will negatively affect their benefits. The same mechanism has been used for other special compensation schemes in the past, including to support Windrush families, as well as those affected by the 7/7 and Manchester bombings.
I also hope that ‘Philomena’s Law’ will raise awareness of the payment scheme more broadly, so that more people in Britain are encouraged to apply, and that we can tackle the stigma of secrecy and shame which has so often surrounded those who were resident in these cruel institutions.
I will continue to work alongside survivors, their families and many Irish community organisations in Britain – including the national charity Irish in Britain – to deliver justice and show them the kindness and respect they have so often been denied in life.
‘Philomena’s Law’ will deliver justice for thousands of Ireland’s Mother and Baby Home survivors
