Hackney to host series of Windrush advice clinics to help people navigate government’s ‘unsatisfactory’ compensation scheme

Warm Shores by Thomas J Price is a tribute to the Windrush generation. Photograph: Hackney Council

A series of advice clinics are being held for people caught up in the Windrush scandal in a bid to speed up their access to compensation.

The surgeries are on 19 June, 17 July and 21 August at Hackney Council’s service centre on Hillman Street.

They will offer free and confidental advice about the Windrush compensation scheme and how to apply.

The clinics have been arranged by the Town Hall in partnership with local charity Claudia Jones Organisation and the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit.

The council has been frustrated by the sluggish progress of the government’s compensation scheme.

It follows the discredited Home Office policy that saw British citizens, mainly of Caribbean heritage, denied rights and services and deported or threatened with deportation.

The scheme means people who came to the UK from the Caribbean between 1948 and 1973 could be entitled to compensation if they put in a claim.

Many of them were wrongly told they were living illegally in the UK and were detained or deported and not given access to their legal rights, despite being invited to come to the country to work.

People could be eligible for compensation if they or their parents or grandparents came to the UK from a Commonwealth country before 1973 or if they came to the UK from any country before 31 December 1988 and are now settled here.

They can also apply if they are closely related to someone eligible to claim and had significant losses or are representing the estate of someone who would have been eligible.

It is not known how many people are affected by the Windrush scandal.

Carole Williams, cabinet member for equalities and the UK’s first councillor for people affected by Windrush, said the government’s progress in compesating people has been “limited and unsatisfactory”.

She said the “toxic” scandal has caused so much trauma for those affected.

The Claudia Jones Organisation offers support to people caught up in the scandal.

It is one of the partners of the Windrush Justice Clinic, a collaboration between legal advice clinics from universities and law centres across London and community interest company the Jigsaw House Society.

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants is also offering help to those affected by Windrush.