Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Remove Windrush payout scheme from Home Office, urges Labour

Remove Windrush payout scheme from Home Office, urges Labour

MPs highlight delays and difficulties in accessing compensation, in Commons debate marking Windrush Day
The Windrush compensation scheme should be removed from the Home Office’s administration and passed to another department, Labour has said during a parliamentary debate.

The Home Office minister Kit Malthouse rejected the proposal, arguing that it would cause disruption and further delays. He said the government was thinking about new ways to mark the contribution made by the Windrush generation.

He told parliament that the Department for Transport was investigating whether the anchor from the Empire Windrush, the ship that brought about 500 people from the Caribbean to the UK in 1948, could be raised from bottom of the Mediterranean near Libya to become a monument.

In a debate granted to mark Windrush Day, MPs highlighted delays and difficulties people had encountered with the scheme designed to compensate as many as 15,000 people affected by the Home Office’s misclassification of thousands of legal UK residents as illegal immigrants.

Labour’s Abena Oppong-Asare said several of her constituents had been waiting for more than a year for a decision on their claims. “One constituent told me that he has been told to send the same documentation three times, despite calling the helpline multiple times, and has been unable to receive an update on his claim. The Home Office must urgently improve how it deals with these cases,” she said.

Claudia Webbe, the former Labour MP now sitting as an independent, said: “Putting the same Home Office that was responsible for the Windrush scandal in charge of the compensation scheme is like leaving a fox in charge of a henhouse. The scheme must be removed from government and given to a properly funded independent regulator.”

The independent MP Margaret Ferrier highlighted another aspect of the Windrush scandal: the pension inequality faced by many of the Windrush generation who retired to their countries of birth after decades spent working in the UK, and whose pensions were frozen.

She said one woman, 90-year-old Nancy Hunt, had missed out on £70,000 worth of pension payments after returning to Antigua having spent decades working and paying taxes in the UK, because of a disparity in pensions paid to former UK residents who have moved back to some Commonwealth countries.

Ferrier cited the case of another constituent, Monica, who she said had worked for 37 years in the UK, for much of that time as a civil servant, and who retired to Antigua to care for her mother in 1996. Her pension was frozen at £74 a week, half the amount received by her sister who still lives in the UK.

The shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, said: “I’ve met people who’ve been offered derisory compensation payments, insulting amounts that come nowhere near recognising the scale of the damage done.

“The speed of the scheme is totally unacceptable, and don’t just take my word for it. The home secretary wrote to me yesterday to say that she agreed with me that claims need to be resolved more quickly. Labour is calling for the Windrush scheme to be overhauled by placing it in the hands of an independent body away from Home Office.”

Malthouse said: “We are not complacent; we recognise the need to resolve claims more quickly. Some people have been waiting too long for that to happen, and that is not acceptable.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×