Compensation payments start, but concerns about the scheme remain

Written by Jessica Bomford, December 18, 2024

After a busy few weeks of meetings and announcements, we want to bring you up to date with some developments about interim and full compensation payments.

The government has announced that compensation has been paid to 10 people, totalling £13m. These are the first payments from the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA), which is administering compensation. IBCA expects to deal with up to 250 compensation claims by the end of March 2025, and then says it should be in a position to scale up the process.

Interim compensation (estates)

Interim compensation payments to estates have also begun, with the first payments of £100,000 made on 7 December. We know that many people have had a really difficult time applying for this payment due to confusion around what documents would be accepted.

The confusion centred on so-called ‘chains of representation’, where original probate documents for the deceased were not in the name of the person applying for compensation. After initially accepting documents that showed a clear link to the deceased via wills and other legal documents, claims were unexpectedly paused with very little explanation.

After considerable pressure on the Cabinet Office from the Haemophilia Society, and other groups, there has finally been confirmation that these ‘chains of representation’ will, after all, be recognised, as will Powers of Attorney. The Probate Service will now sign off this process. The revised guidance is here. If you are directly impacted by this you should have either received a letter or a phone call to explain what happens next with your claim. If you haven’t heard anything, please phone the scheme that is administering your claim – this will be the infected blood support schemes in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland and the Infected Blood Interim Estates Payment Scheme in England.

We have told the government how traumatising this conflicting advice has been on a personal level to so many of you. We also believe it has damaged the compensation process as a whole, due to poor communication and insensitive treatment of bereaved applicants.

Government response to inquiry’s recommendations

The government has published an update on its response to the Infected Blood Inquiry’s recommendations, including the ones contained in interim reports as well as the 12 set out in its final report published in May 2024. You can read the update here. The document lists all the recommendations made by Sir Brian Langstaff, Chair of the Infected Blood Inquiry, and says what the government is doing to implement them.

Meeting with minister

On 11 December, we, along with 30 other campaign groups, were invited to meet Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, the Cabinet Office minister with responsibility for delivering the Infected Blood Inquiry’s recommendations, including compensation. We were frustrated to be given only four minutes to address the minister directly and have followed up our meeting with a letter, setting out the concerns about the compensation scheme which need to be urgently addressed. We believe there must be far more meaningful engagement between the ministers and Cabinet Office officials and the contaminated blood community if the compensation process is to be a success and have the trust of those it is there to support.

Letter from Sir Brian Langstaff

On 9 December 2024, Sir Brian Langstaff, Chair of the Infected Blood Inquiry, wrote to Mr Thomas-Symonds to express his concern at what seemed to be a ‘groundswell of discontent’ about the way in which compensation is being managed.

He stressed the need to listen to those at the heart of the contaminated blood scandal and repeated his view that IBCA should be an independent, arms-length body. You can read Sir Brian’s letter here. There was also a response to the letter from IBCA’s interim Chair, Sir Robert Francis, which you can read here.

Sir Brian’s intervention came following a letter from the Haemophilia Society and other campaign groups raising concern about the damage caused by the interim compensation confusion and on-going difficulties of communicating with the Cabinet Office.

What’s next?

On 17 December members of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood were brought up to speed on some of the concerns outlined above. They agreed that more pressure needed to be brought to bear on Mr Thomas-Symonds and Cabinet Office officials to improve engagement with the infected blood community. The APPG’s co-Chair, Clive Efford MP, was due to meet Mr Thomas-Symonds on 18 December to discuss this further.

The Haemophilia Society will continue to lobby for more meetings with the Cabinet Office. We’re pleased that IBCA has involved us and many other members of the community in its work in the last few months and are confident this will continue productively in the New Year.

IBCA webinar: 9 January 2025

There will be an update from IBCA at a webinar hosted by the Hepatitis C Trust on 9 January 2025 from 5-6.30pm which is open to anyone from the infected blood community. We don’t yet have the link, but will publish it early in 2025.