THE HOME Office Windrush compensation scheme is riddled with flaws and the vast majority of people who applied have not received a penny, according to a cross-party committee of MPs.

The report from the Home Affairs Select Committee means the Windrush Scandal remains alive four years after stories first emerged, despite the hope of government ministers that offering apologies and the compensation scheme would put a lid on the issue.

The findings revived demands from campaigners for the scheme to be removed from the Home Office and administered by an independent body in order to give victims of the scandal confidence.

Stories emerged in 2018 of Caribbeans being wrongfully detained and deported as part of the ‘hostile environment’ despite living in Britain for decades and not breaking the law.

23 victims have died before receiving compensation, including Paulette Wilson who campaigned for justice before dying last year, aged 65.

The Voice spoke to one victim who was deeply dissatisfied with the compensation he had been offered.

Anthony Bryan, a decorator whose health deteriorated after being locked up in an immigration detention centre and is now unable to work, said the compensation he was offered did not even cover his loss of earnings.

He said: “It has been humiliating. I’d never been locked up before. I didn’t kill anybody, I didn’t steal nothing, I paid my tax.”

Mr Bryan, 62, whose story inspired the Bafta-winning BBC drama Sitting in Limbo, came to Britain aged nine and  – like other Windrush victims – assumed his status was secure. 

He did not have all the paperwork to prove his right to live and work in Britain when government officials came calling.

The Home Office offered £60,000 compensation, which is significantly less than he would have earned if he had not been detained and suffered health conditions, which stopped him working following his release.

His partner, Janet McKay-Williams, called the offer “insulting”, and said various costs were not taken into account like bailiffs fees that were incurred after the Home Office detained and then prevented Mr Bryan from working.

The Home Office insist they have made several changes to improve the way the compensation scheme operates.

The government say they had made a final decision on 42% of all applications and have made a payment to 29% of the 3,025 people who have applied, according to the most recent figures.

The report by MPs alleged that only 20% of the initial estimated 15,000 affected people had applied to the scheme, and just 5% had received compensation.

But Home Office officials point out that the early figure of those affected had since been revised to between 4,000 and 6,000 people, which meant that the 5% figure was incorrect.

Last year Wendy Williams, who led a government review to learn lessons from the Windrush Scandal, said the government was failing to make enough progress on compensation.

Earlier this year the Home Secretary Priti Patel removed the end date for compensation and increased the overall amount.

The Home Affairs Select Committee found “a litany of flaws in the design and operation of the scheme” including excessive burden on claimants to provide documentary evidence of losses, long delays in processing, poor communication and inadequate staffing. 

The MPs welcome changes made by the Home Office but said these did not go far enough.

They called for an increase in awards, plus guaranteed legal assistance to claimants and an independent appeals process.

However, Windrush campaigner Professor Patrick Vernon OBE renewed calls for the compensation scheme to be taken away from the Home Office and administered by an independent body.

He said: “Ultimately it’s about Priti Patel now recognising this. The community has made it very clear we don’t trust the Home Office to manage the scheme. The Home Secretary now needs to do the right thing and start the process of finding a new agency to manage it so confidence can be restored and justice given. It’s imperative – too many people have died without receiving compensation.”

The scandal has now spanned four Home Secretary’s – Theresa May, Amber Rudd, Sajid Javid and Priti Patel. 

The Home Office said they had awarded £31.6 million with a further £5.6 million having been offered, and pointed out there was no cap to the amount they are prepared to pay out.

Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy told The Voice: “The Windrush compensation scheme is a scandal in itself. This report shows it remains beset by the same failings that caused the Windrush Scandal in the first place more than two years after its launch.

“The Home Office’s failure to get compensation to the vast majority of those in need shows it was a mistake to entrust the compensation scheme to the department that administered the Windrush Generation’s suffering in the first place without root and branch reform.”

Kimberly McIntosh, an author and former Runnymede Trust policy officer, added: “With the Hostile Environment still very much in place, the recent deportation flight to Jamaica will do little to calm fears that the Home Office cannot be trusted. 

“If the government is serious about righting the wrongs of the Windrush injustice, they will take heed of these recommendations and those made by Wendy Williams’ Lessons Learned review over 18 months ago.” 

Lawyer Jacqueline McKenzie, a partner at Leigh Day, has revealed that the biggest category for Windrush compensation applicants is “nil offer.”

She said: “This report is the latest in a series which highlights the failings of the Windrush Compensation Scheme. We’ve had reports from the National Audit Office, the Joint Committee on Human Rights, and most recently, from Justice.  All of these use an evidence base to show, incontrovertibly, that the scheme is not working.

“A complete overhaul and a new management organisation is probably the only way that victims of the Windrush scandal are likely to get redress in a timely manner.”

The cross-party group of MPs wrote in their report that it was a “damning indictment of the Home Office” that “the same bureaucratic insensitivities that led to the Windrush scandal in the first place” were in evidence in the compensation scheme.

They called on Wendy Williams to look at the compensation scheme as part of her review of the Home Office’s progress on her recommendations.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The Home Secretary and the department remain steadfast in our commitment to ensure that members of the Windrush generation receive every penny of compensation that they are entitled to. 

“We are pleased this report welcomes the changes made to the Scheme in December and we continue to make improvements, such as simplifying the application process, hiring more caseworkers and removing the end date. We firmly believe that moving the operation of the scheme out of the Home Office would risk significantly delaying vital payments to those affected.”

However, Claudia Webbe MP commented: “The mistreatment of the Windrush generation is one of the most wicked chapters in modern British history. The mishandling of the Windrush Compensation Scheme has rubbed salt into the wounds, heaping insult upon injustice. The compensation scheme must be taken from the Home Office and rapidly accelerated. 

“We must continue to fight for justice for the Windrush generation, and for a future free of institutionalised racism.”

UPDATE 25/11: This article has been updated to provide clarity around figures. – Ed.