Infected blood scandal victims savage Keir Starmer and Labour as it emerges only TEN people have received compensation so far_Nhy
Victims of the infected blood scandal have slammed Labour for their slow response in paying out compensation after it emerged just 10 out of the 4,000 people affected had received their money.
Campaigners blasted the Government’s ‘glacial’ pace at which pay-outs were being offered, claiming that just 17 people had been invited to register for compensation.
Thousands of people became infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s, with more than 3,000 known to have died.
One of those affected was Stuart Cantrill’s father, who contracted HIV from contaminated blood products and died from AIDS-related complications in 1989.
He told Good Morning Britain on Monday about the challenges he had faced in trying to receive his compensation and find ‘closure’ for his father’s death.
He said: ‘I’m one of these people who has a line of succession claim. So my mum was the legal representative for my dad. My mum passed away in 2010. I’m now the legal representative for my mum. That is a fairly simple chain. It should be pretty straight forward.
‘At the end of October they opened applications for interim estate payments. So I put in an application and it was approved. They gave me a date that the payment would be paid and five days after they approved it they told me “no we are not approving it, we need more information from you”.
‘The cabinet office told the interim estate payment scheme that we are no longer accepting line of succession claims, so they moved the goalposts.’
Stuart Cantrill spoke to Good Morning Britain about the challenges he had faced in trying to receive his compensation and find ‘closure’ for his father’s death
Campaigners blasted the Government’s ‘glacial’ pace at which pay-outs were being offered, claiming that just 17 people had been invited to register for compensation (Pictured: Campaigners demonstrating outside the Houses of Parliament earlier this year)
Government sources defended Labour’s response since taking office in July, pointing out that the compensation scheme was established ‘in law’ in August – just weeks after the election
Former Olympian Sharon Davies added that she had ‘almost given up’ trying to seek justice for her mother, who died after contracting Hepatitis C after receiving a blood transfusion.
‘It’s not about the money for me. It’s about getting justice for people and getting the story out there that is not being heard,’ she told GMB.
‘But I’ve almost given up, which is exactly what they want you to do.’
In May, the final report of a five-year inquiry into the scandal said that the health service and successive governments of all colours took part in a ‘chilling’ cover-up and ‘closed ranks’ to hide the truth.
In response to that report, an £11.8billion scheme was set up this year to compensate victims and their families.
But at a meeting with Labour officials last week to discuss their payout claims, victims felt they were being treated as a nuisance and offered little guidance on when their concerns would be dealt with.
According to campaigner and scandal victim Richard Warwick, the Government only started processing claims in October and need to ‘get a move on’.
He told GMB: ‘It truly is egregious that after being recommended to set up an infected blood compensation authority which would allow the Government to process the claims and give money to people., they have only processing in October and have done 10 so far.’
More than 30,000 people in the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C at the hands of the NHS in the 1970s and 1980s
Paymaster General Nick Thomas-Symonds, pictured with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola in October, has been accused of concentrating too much on his other key role – negotiating a new post-Brexit deal with Brussels
A report into the NHS’ infected blood scandal has found that it was ‘not an accident’ but the result of a series of shocking failures followed by a ‘pervasive’ cover-up
Earlier this month, Labour was accused of focusing too much on ‘selling out’ on Brexit and not enough on compensating victims of the worst mistreatment scandal in NHS history.
Campaigners raised fears that the slow compensation payment pace could be because the relevant minister, Nick Thomas-Symonds, was concentrating too much on his other key role – negotiating a new post-Brexit deal with Brussels.
Andy Evans, chairman of the Tainted Blood group which campaigns on behalf of victims of the scandal, suggested the minister’s dual responsibilities could explain why compensation was taking so long.
Mr Evans said: ‘People are still dying at the rate of two per week as result of their infections and it’s estimated that by March, another 80 infected persons will die before they get any compensation.
‘Despite promises of all this happening as soon as possible, the process since the election has been glacial.
‘If Mr Thomas-Symonds had this as his overriding responsibility – and not also having to sort out a new deal with Brussels – surely people and families affected would get their just compensation much faster.’
Government sources defended Labour’s response since taking office in July, pointing out that the compensation scheme was established ‘in law’ in August – just weeks after the election.
They also pointed out that the Budget in October allocated £11.8bn compensation and that all recommendations from the Infected Blood inquiry – including the setting up of an arms-length compensation body – had been accepted in full or in principle.
For people such as Mr Cantrill, a compensation payout would allow him to ‘move on’ from his father’s death.
He told the ITV show: ‘I do not have closure. His death has not been recognised by the state yet. There are going to be different levels of closure. We can’t change what has happened. But it would be nice to be able to move on.’
