Yahoo News Home Secretary Priti Patel launches advertising campaign for Windrush helpline
Priti Patel has announced a new advertising campaign aimed at supporting members of the Windrush generation.
The Home Secretary said the Windrush Help Team assists people with attaining the documents necessary to claim compensation.
Ministers faced a furious backlash in 2018 over the treatment of the Windrush generation, named after a ship that brought migrants to Britain from the Caribbean in 1948.
Commonwealth citizens who arrived before 1973 were automatically granted indefinite leave to remain but some were later challenged over their immigration status despite living in the UK legally for decades.
Throughout 2018 there were a growing number of cases of Windrush descendants, who were being denied their rights, detained and even deported on the false basis they were “illegal immigrants”.
“I am driving change to make sure nothing like this can happen again," said Ms Patel.
“It is essential that people who have been affected by Windrush get the support and compensation they deserve.
“This new campaign will raise awareness of the Windrush Help Team and the support available so that as many people as possible apply.”
The campaign comes weeks after the Home Office published data showing fewer than 8 per cent of Windrush victims claiming compensation have received payouts.
A total of 1,392 claims were made to the scheme by the end of June and £755,110.88 has been paid out to 110 people, just 7.9 per cent, according to the department’s figures.
The Home Office said in a statement the campaign features those who have applied to the Windrush schemes as well as caseworkers from the help team “to show the benefit of applying and the human faces behind the service”.
Sita Dwyer was 18-months-old when she came to the UK from Trinidad in 1962 and applied to the Home Office for a naturalisation document in the 1980s after hearing a Government announcement on the radio.
But the Home Office later contacted her to say it had lost her documents, leading to decades of feeling unwelcome in her own country and the deterioration of her physical health.
In 2018 she contacted the Windrush Help Team who helped her attain a naturalisation document and offered financial compensation.
She said: “If I hadn’t sorted out a lot of the documents I needed myself before, the Windrush team would have helped me with that. They would have talked to the DWP and helped me get a new birth certificate. They would have saved me a lot of anger, a lot of tears and frustration.”
The number of claims for compensation received has fallen each quarter since the scheme launched in April last year.
The fund has an estimated budget of at least £200 million.
According to a Home Office spokeswoman, £1.5 million had been offered in compensation through the scheme as of July 15.
MPs have warned there is a risk of people dying before they receive compensation owed unless the Government steps up its efforts.
Additional reporting by PA Media.
