Changes to the Windrush Compensation Scheme (accessible version)
Published 23 December 2020
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Freepost
Windrush Compensation Scheme
14 December 2020
Changes to the Windrush Compensation Scheme
We are writing to you to let you know about some important changes to the Windrush Compensation Scheme and how they will affect you.
The Home Secretary has announced a number of immediate changes to the Windrush Compensation Scheme. How you will be affected depends on where your case is in the process.
If you have not yet received a final offer, we will firstly consider whether you are entitled to a preliminary payment of £10,000 or make you a full and final offer which will be based on the new impact on life payment levels. We will make that decision based on where your application is in the process, with the aim of getting payment to you in the quickest possible way. Preliminary or final payment offers will start to be made from this week, and we will process as many as possible over the coming weeks and before the end of March 2021.
If you have already received an offer but have not yet responded confirming you wish to accept or reject it, we will now revise that offer to take into account the changes that we have made today. Please wait to receive an updated offer from us. If you have already been offered a payment under the impact on life category this will mean you will receive more compensation. You do not need to take any action, and we will contact you with the revised offer before the end of January 2021.
If you have already requested a Tier 1 review, we will apply the new changes when conducting that review, and you can expect to receive a new decision and response by the end of March 2021. If you have already been offered a payment under the impact on life category this will mean you will receive more compensation.
Telephone: 0800 678 1925
Monday - Friday: 9am to 5pm
If you have requested a tier 2 review, we will contact you separately about what to do next. Again, if you have already been offered a payment under the impact on life category this will mean you will receive more compensation.
For those people who have already accepted an offer and received payment, we will now review your case. If you have already received a payment under the impact on life category this will mean you will receive more compensation. We will begin reviewing cases immediately. If we need any further information from you, we will contact you. Reviews and offers of payment will begin from now but please bear with us as we work to process claims as quickly as possible.
For those who already receive monthly updates, we will include more detail on when you can expect to have your revised decision if we have not already contacted you about it.
If you have already received a nil award, then I am sorry to say that these changes will not affect the outcome of your case. You are still able to proceed with a Tier 1 or Tier 2 independent review of your case and should that result in you being awarded an impact of life payment it will be made under the new scale.
We are sorry that for many of you it has taken too long for us to deal with your application. We hope that the above will give some reassurance of our commitment to improving the Compensation Scheme and speeding up payments as far as possible.
Yours sincerely,
Windrush Compensation Scheme