A year ago, the Guardian began investigating the scandalous treatment of members of the Windrush generation who, after decades of living and working in Britain, were wrongly classified as illegal immigrants. Some were taken to detention centres; dozens were deported. Others lost homes and jobs, leaving them destitute and heavily in debt. Six months on, the government apologised and promised to redress those wrongs and pay compensation. More than 2,000 people have now been granted citizenship. Last week, Ken Morgan was able to return to London after spending 25 years in Jamaica because his British passport was taken from him without warning.
Yet Windrush victims are still suffering. Any reassurance offered by their new documentation – which not all have yet obtained – is set against all the anguish, stress and fear they have endured. Many remain in dire financial straits, purely because of the government’s own admitted failings, having lost their work and spent hundreds or thousands of pounds on application fees and legal advice. One says she is threatened with eviction even after substantial help from her children. All are of an age at which it is harder to find new work, even if they now have the documents they need.
Many seem broadly satisfied with the outlines of the proposed compensation scheme, including the suggestion that it should take account of the devastating psychological impact, though of course no sum can truly compensate for being denied the chance to see a dying parent. Some are concerned by the unspecified cap on the amount claimable. Others have pointed to the difficulties of proving expenses accrued over years. And for a few it is already too late.
So there is shock and anxiety that the consultation is being extended for five weeks more, after the independent adviser told the Home Office that people had requested more time to respond. Clearly, any scheme dealing with issues of such complexity needs to be drawn up carefully as well as quickly, as the home secretary, Sajid Javid, told MPs.
The home affairs select committee put forward the obvious solution back in June. It warned that people in urgent need could not wait for the consultations to end, and urged the government to immediately set up a hardship fund. Now, four months on, Mr Javid has conceded that in some pressing and exceptional cases it may be right to consider payments in advance of the full scheme and has asked officials to develop a framework for considering such cases. That is a small step forward – but it is long overdue. Those in acute financial difficulties have waited far too long already. They need help now.
