Rt Hon Nick Thomas-

Symonds MP
Shadow Secretary of State for the Home Department

BY EMAIL ONLY

2 November 2020

Dear Mr Thomas-Symonds,

RE: Windrush Compensation Scheme

We are a small, independent advocacy group, and organisers of a network of Windrush

victims who have made, or are in the process of making, claims to the Windrush
Compensation Scheme (“Scheme”).

In response to an article published on 2 November1, you tweeted, at 1:19 PM, that you
would be raising the matter of at least 9 claimants having died before receiving
compensation under the Scheme with the Government. We write to you now as we
believe there is an additional point to note on the matter of claims outliving claimants.

As of 29 October 20202, 71 ‘Estate’ claims, being claims made by survivors of a deceased

family member for the loss suffered by the deceased, have been made. Of that total, 3
claims have been paid, giving a rate of payment of roughly 4.2%. The corresponding rates
for Primary claims (where claimants are alive and claim for themselves) and Close Family
claims (where close family members of claimants make claim for the distress to them as
a result of the effects suffered by their relative) are 13.6% and 7.3% respectively. Whilst
all three rates are appalling, it is, and has for some time been, apparent that Estate claims
are either not being addressed, or are being rejected at a higher rate than Primary and
Close Family claims. This has not been acknowledged or addressed by the Home Office.

The article noted that 9 claimants have died before receiving compensation. Any Primary
claims made by those individuals will now be processed (and may have to be re-made)
as Estate claims. On the current figures, that reduces their chance of success by about
two-thirds. The unsavoury implication of this is clear, particularly as the Home Office is

1 Fenwick, Jack, ‘Windrush: At least nine victims died before getting compensation’, available at
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54748038, Westminster Hour, BBC News
2 Windrush Compensation Scheme Data, October 2020, available at

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/windrush-compensation-scheme-data-october-2020. Please note

that on WCS_01, the figures presented are per period, but in WCS_05, they are cumulative.

1
well aware that the constituents of the class are in their 50s and beyond, and has
acknowledged, inter alia in response to Wendy Williams’ Windrush Lessons Learned
review, the incredible stress visited upon claimants by the process of obtaining
documentation and compensation.

There is no indication of the average amount paid for each Estate claim, as the Home
Office does not break its data down to allow sight or extrapolation of that information.
However, the overall average quantum per claim stands at £8,261.70. This figure is itself
an overstatement as the Home Office has (whether by intent or accident) disclosed that
at least one claim received a payment in excess of £100,000 – the effect of an outlier of
that magnitude is to reduce the average across the other claims significantly.

The defects with the Scheme are broad and deep. We attach a letter sent to the Chairs
of the Public Accounts and Home Affairs Committees in response to evidence tended by
the head of the Home Office at a hearing in September. The letter sets out a range of
these defects in greater detail. We enclose it in the hope that it is of assistance in your
anticipated questioning of Government on the comprehensive failure of the Scheme.

We also wish to extend an invitation to remotely meet with and discuss these matters with
our network of claimants. These claimants are true experts on the Scheme, having
grappled endlessly with it since its launch; they have a wealth of both documentary and
direct evidence attesting to the issues raised in this letter and the enclosure. Curiously,
they and other claimants have been left out of any and all reviews and progress updates
conducted by the Home Office on the Scheme to date. Although they are the users of the
Scheme – i.e., the constituency directly affected by it – Government has to date refused
to engage with them, or acknowledge or address their complaints on the Scheme. We
hope therefore that in your capacity as Shadow Secretary of State for the Home
Department, you might be interested in hearing what they have to say.

Yours sincerely,

WL
@windrushlives
windrush.lives@gmail.com

Enc: Letter – Windrush Lives – Rycroft evidence 10 Sep