Lack of legal help denied Windrush scandal survivors bigger payouts

Survivors of the Windrush scandal have received significantly less compensation than they may be entitled to because of a lack of government funding for their legal advice, a study has found.

- Amelia Gentleman

A review of 17 applications revealed that claimants who challenged their awards after taking legal advice won much bigger payouts.

One woman's settlement rose from £300 to £170,000 with a lawyer's help and a man who was initially refused any compensation received £295,000 after obtaining legal support from a charity. Other awards rose from zero to £95,000 or increased from £10,000 to £150,000.

The scheme denied compensation to two-thirds of applicants, according to the study, co-written by the law reform charity Justice, the University of Sussex and the law firm Dechert, which calls for funded legal assistance for claimants.

The Post Office and infected blood compensation schemes both offer applicants legal advice, making the Windrush scheme an exception among state redress programmes.

One claimant, given the pseudonym Jerome in the report, who was born in the late 1950s in the Caribbean and came to the UK as a child, lost his passport in the 1970s and did not replace it because he had no plans to travel abroad. He worked in the building and steel industries until the early 2000s, when he switched jobs but found himself unable to re-enter the labour force because he could not prove his right to live and work in the UK.