Windrush scandal victims still homeless and being betrayed by Home Office, damning report warns

Ministers accused of shameful failure to provide help to people trapped by ‘hostile environment’ crackdown – 11 months after scandal broke

Victims of the Windrush scandal are still homeless and being betrayed by the Home Office, MPs warn today – almost one year after Theresa May acknowledged their suffering.

Ministers are accused of a shameful failure to provide the help promised to people trapped by the prime minister’s “hostile environment” crackdown, leaving them unable “to rebuild their lives”.

Many remain “homeless or having to rely on family members”, while a promised compensation scheme has yet to start and an “urgent” hardship fund took eight months to set up, a damning report says.

Sajid Javid, the home secretary, has also failed to investigate cases from Commonwealth countries outside the Caribbean – while his officials admitted they may still be using incorrect data.

“It is simply not taking ownership of the problems it created”, said Meg Hillier, the chairwoman of the Commons public accounts committee (PAC), of the department.

The report comes 11 months after the Windrush scandal engulfed the government, forcing the prime minister to apologise – in front of Commonwealth leaders – for the harsh impact of her policies as home secretary.

It was revealed how British citizens had been deported, detained, sacked from their jobs and made homeless because they could not provide correct documents to employers, landlords and the NHS acting as “de facto border guards”.

The affair claimed the scalp of Amber Rudd, bringing Mr Javid to the home office promising a “fairer, more compassionate immigration system”.

But the PAC has attacked the home office’s continued handling of the fallout for:

* “Shirking its responsibility to put right the wrongs suffered” – for example, by failing to help with urgent housing needs;

* Lacking “any sense of urgency’ – having taken eight months to set up the hardship fund, which campaigners have protested has set a “very high bar” for providing help;

* Failing to launch its promised compensation scheme – “The department could not tell us when the scheme would be launched,” the report said;

* Refusing to review cases other than from 12 Caribbean countries, despite acknowledging other people had been affected – a stance it “could not justify”;

* Creating the risk that EU citizens after Brexit “will also be caught out if they do not have the required documents”; and

* “Making life-changing decisions on people’s rights, based on incorrect data” – after it refused an independent recommendation to “cleanse its database”.

The report warned: “Many of those in need of help are elderly and vulnerable and cannot afford to wait any longer. Homelessness is an acute issue for those affected requiring urgent action.”

And Ms Hillier added: “The human consequences of this appalling scandal are tragic and well documented. But there is a long way to go before the Home Office can credibly claim to have put things right.

“A supposedly ‘urgent’ hardship fund has taken eight months to set up; a planned compensation scheme is still not operating, and the Home Office could not tell us when it would be.”

The Home Office insisted ministers “have been resolute in their determination to right the wrongs experienced by the Windrush generation”, including through independent oversight.

“The taskforce has helped thousands of people of different nationalities prove their status in the UK. Through the Windrush scheme, 3,400 people have obtained British citizenship,” a spokeswoman said.