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Minister urged to address compensation concerns

Written by Jessica Bomford, October 15, 2024

The Haemophilia Society has told the government that it needs to engage with the contaminated blood community to address outstanding areas of concern over the compensation scheme.

In a letter to Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, the minister with responsibility for the government’s response to the Infected Blood Inquiry, Kate Burt, our Chief Executive and Conan McIlwrath, Chair-elect, set out some of the issues which need urgent attention. You can read our letter here.

These include:

The current scheme does not recognise those with chronic hepatitis C who underwent interferon treatment and the impact this had on their lives
Concern that the hepatitis C payment bandings do not reflect the suffering caused
Concern that no compensation is being paid to siblings if they were over 18 when infection happened
More clarification needed over ‘supplementary route’ payments
More detail needed about the need to provide a ‘date of infection’, which is causing anxiety as this is difficult to prove
Issues relating to estates including the stipulation that only estate representatives can make decisions on care awards as well as discrepancies in care and financial loss awards which penalised people who died young without dependants.

We have also reminded Mr Thomas-Symonds that the Infected Blood Inquiry recommended that charities providing advocacy for the contaminated blood community, including the Haemophilia Society, should receive government funding. In the current difficult financial climate, it is essential that our funding is on a secure footing to help us ensure we can continue to offer support to those infected and affected by the contaminated blood scandal.

The letter asks Mr Thomas-Symonds to meet our representatives as a matter of urgency to address the concerns which are causing great anxiety to our members. We have also asked the Infected Blood Compensation Authority, the body which will administer the payments, for a clearer timeline on when and how payments will be made. There remains great uncertainty about how the interim compensation payment for estates will be handled. Registration for the payment is due to open later this month and will be handled by a new body called Infected the Blood Interim Compensation Payment Scheme, which is partially linked to the UK’s infected blood support schemes.

On 15 October the inaugural meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood took place when Labour MP Clive Efford was voted chair. He replaces Dame Diana Johnson MP who is now a government minister and Sir Peter Bottomley who is no longer an MP. The Vice Chairs are Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party) and Baroness Featherstone (Liberal Democrat). There remains a vacancy for an officer from the Conservative Party which must be filled before the group can be officially registered.