UK has offered more than £41m compensation to Windrush victims

Swift payment promised after criticism that 95% of victims had not been paid out

Newly arrived Jamaican immigrants on board the 'Empire Windrush' at Tilbury, on June 22, 1948. Getty Images

The UK has offered victims of the Windrush scandal more than £41m compensation.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has vowed to swiftly pay the funds after it was revealed last year that 95 per cent of victims had not received any money four years after the compensation programme was launched.

The scheme was launched in 2019 after thousands of people who were born in the Commonwealth and migrated legally to the UK in the 1950s and 60s, arriving on the Empire Windrush ship, were wrongfully detained, denied legal advice and threatened with deportation.

Thousands of legal immigrants who had lived in the country for decades were denied access to health care, the right to work and, in some cases, threatened with deportation due to a lack of official paperwork.

Ms Patel has previously admitted members of the Windrush generation were repeatedly failed after being wrongly classified as illegal immigrants.

The Home Office says more than £35m has now been paid to 940 people and more than 25 per cent of applicants have received a payment.

“Since I overhauled the Windrush Compensation Scheme, the home office has been able to secure compensation for more people more quickly. £41 million has now been offered to Windrush victims, with more claims being finalised as quickly as possible,” Ms Patel said.

“In addition, 13 further organisations across the UK will receive funding through the Windrush Community Fund. The £500,000 fund allows community and grass roots organisations to bid for up to £25,000 to deliver projects to help raise awareness of the Windrush Scheme documentation and Windrush Compensation Scheme.”

The government said it has now offered 11 people up to £300,000 compensation, 61 people have been offered between £100,000 and £200,000 and 187 people have been offered or paid between £50,000 and £100,000.

Last year the Commons Home Affairs Committee said there had been a “litany of flaws” blighting the scheme since its creation.

Yvette Cooper, chairwoman of the committee, said the delays and problems with the scheme had “compounded the injustice and the trauma” suffered by victims of the Windrush scandal.