Windrush generation: Ministers waiting for claimants to die - Diane Abbott

Labour MP Diane Abbott has accused ministers of waiting for the Windrush generation to pass away, instead of improving the compensation scheme.

Other MPs called for the scheme to be passed from the Home Office to an independent body.

The government rejected the calls but accepted the need for improvements.

The scheme aims to help those affected by the Windrush scandal which saw people removed from the UK despite having lived in the country for years.

Others were denied access to work, welfare services and the NHS.

The Windrush generation refers to the thousands of people who came to the UK between 1949 and 1971 from Caribbean countries.

The Home Office kept no record of those granted leave to remain and issued no paperwork - making it difficult for Windrush arrivals to later prove their legal status.

A compensation scheme for those affected has been running for almost three years - but it has long been criticised for being too complicated and too slow - and at least 23 victims have died without being paid.

During a parliamentary debate about the scheme, Ms Abbott, whose mother was part of the Windrush generation, accused ministers of ignoring proposals for ways to speed up the scheme.

"That suggests to me that they don't respect that generation, they don't understand the humiliation this generation feels and clearly it is as if they are waiting for this generation to pass away," said the former shadow home secretary.

Labour MP and chair of the Home Affairs Committee Diana Johnson was among other opposition MPs who said the scheme should be passed from the Home Office to an independent organisation.

Supporting her proposal, the SNP's Stuart McDonald said: "Is it not blindingly obvious that people who have had their lives destroyed by a government department will be reluctant, terrified even, to have to engage with that same department again."

In response, the Home Office minister Kevin Foster rejected calls for the Home Office to be stripped of the scheme - and said doing so would risk significantly delaying payments to people.

He added that the programme had been overhauled in December 2020 and that £36m had been paid out.

Glenda Caesar came to the UK from Dominica in 1961 before her first birthday.

In 2009 she lost her job as a GP's practitioner as she didn't have the paperwork to prove she could legally work in the UK.

She was watching the debate and told the BBC that some members of the generation didn't want to make a compensation application because of their age.

"They don't want to take on the stress and worry," she said.

"The Windrush community are still having to wait for payments, still having to go through a lot of paperwork and reliving the trauma they were put through in the first place.

"Some of these people are really old, some of them are not computer literate - they do need assistance but they need it from someone they trust.

"They have no trust in the Home Office because the Home Office has let them down."