Last July, the Infected Blood Inquiry published their Additional Report on Compensation, following significant outcry from the community regarding the many unfair elements of the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme. This report included a series of recommendations – some of which the Government immediately accepted and then brought into law in December. For the remaining recommendations, the Government opened a public consultation to inform their decisions.
Yesterday, the Government has published their response to the public consultation.
The departure from the proposals in the consultation is minimal; the changes to the scheme outlined in their response include:
- A new supplementary route award for people living with HCV and who were, or would have been, eligible for the Special Category Mechanism. This will raise their yearly Financial Loss to £20,760 (or £17,794) and care award to £5,460 for the years they are eligible. These awards will be calculated from 2017; the award will not be backdated before 2017 and is not open to estates.
- No change to the current Severe Psychological Health Award, but people who are not eligible for this award can apply for the SCM award.
- A new Level 2B award for people who underwent interferon treatment. This will compensate people through a £10,000 uplift to their Injury Award, and provide two years of uplifted Financial Loss, and one year of uplifted Care Award. People who received multiple rounds of interferon treatment will be eligible for additional Financial Loss and Care awards for each round.
- A new £60,000 award for infected people who can show that they had entered or had an offer to enter a career where the median gross salary is 10% higher than the gross median earnings in 2023, but who were unable to progress this career due to their infection.
- An uplift for affected compensation claims (an additional 50% of their injury award) for children and siblings affected whilst under the age of 18, bereaved parents whose infected child died under the age of 18, and bereaved partners.
- Anyone who received treatment for a bleeding disorder in the UK before 1986 will now be eligible for additional compensation through the Unethical Research Award. Those who were treated as adults will receive an award of £30,000 (up from £10,000). Those who were treated as children will receive an award of £45,000 (up from £10,000). Children who were treated whilst attending Treloar’s will receive an award of £60,000 (up from £25,000).
- People who were infected aged 18 or under will now receive an additional 50% in their Autonomy Award.
Rachel Halford, Chief Executive of the Hepatitis C Trust responded:
“Whilst we recognise that important improvements have been announced by the Government, we are very disappointed that yet again there is little evidence that the concerns of the infected blood community have been listened to.
The Government has heralded these as significant changes but in truth they are minor and largely reiterate the Government’s original plans. We are very concerned that the community will find this bitterly disappointing.
We are particularly concerned by the rejection of proposals to adequately compensate people for the severe and long-lasting side-effects of hepatitis treatment, and the limited progress in compensation for people subjected to unethical research and medical experimentation. In this case it appears that yet again figures for compensation have been arrived at with no clear process; the proposed compensation for such a huge injustice remains pitifully low. Critical issues which were repeatedly raised about the way compensation is calculated for families who’ve lost loved ones have been wholly ignored.
This is the last major opportunity to change the Compensation Scheme and deliver real justice on infected blood. We know the Minister for the Cabinet Office is committed to finally righting this historic wrong but unless these concerns are listened to, he won’t. We urge the Government to look again at the elements of the scheme the community have demonstrated are unjust and stand ready to work with the Government to get this right. We are rapidly running out of time to see justice done; it is already fifty years too late.”