Home Office stops recording how many Windrush people have died while waiting for compensation

Priti Patel accused of ‘avoiding public scrutiny’ after she refuses to say how many people have passed away waiting for Windrush payments - despite having revealed this data previously. By May Bulman

Saturday 17 April 2021 01:13 BST
Comments
<p>Ms Patel said information on how many Windrush compensation claimants had passed away was ‘not included in statistical data published by the Home Office’</p>

Ms Patel said information on how many Windrush compensation claimants had passed away was ‘not included in statistical data published by the Home Office’

The Home Office has stopped recording the number of Windrush people who have died before receiving compensation they had applied for, prompting renewed concern ministers are attempting to “avoid scrutiny”.

The Windrush compensation scheme was set up in April 2019 to compensate thousands of Commonwealth nationals who had been wrongly classified as illegal immigrants in Britain, preventing them from working and accessing services, and sometimes leading to them being detained and threatened with deportation.

Last July, Priti Patel confirmed that five individuals had passed away while waiting on their compensation claims in response to a parliamentary written question requesting the figure.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in