LONDON, 5 October 2005 — Britain’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) yesterday made first compensation payments to victims of the July 7 London bombings, almost three months after the tragedy in which 56 people died and over 700 were injured.
CICA confirmed it had sent out two compensation checks on Monday with others to follow this week. It has so far made compensation offers to 22 victims totaling 400,000 pounds. Offers have to be accepted before the checks are sent. According to CICA, “the first two acceptances arrived on Friday, and on Monday the first two checks were sent out.”
The government-funded compensation scheme has so far received a total of 209 applications for compensation and of those 92 have so far been backed up by police reports. Most of the offers made so far are for interim payments. The CICA also requires a medical report to assess injuries.
Last week Prime Minister Tony Blair at the Labour Party conference in Brighton said he would follow up why payments to the bomb victims and their dependants were not yet forthcoming and perhaps try to speed up the process of compensation to them.
CICA chief executive Howard Webber defended the Authority’s handling of the claims stressing that it had “set up a dedicated team to deal with all applications from the London bombing victims. We are determined that they receive the compensation they are entitled to as quickly as possible.”
In contrast, a separate compensation scheme, the London Bombings Relief Charitable Fund, set up by London Mayor Ken Livingstone; administered by the British Red Cross; and which raised almost 9 million pounds in donations from charities, companies and individuals, made its first payments two weeks after the attacks.
Interim grants of 5,000 pounds were paid to the bereaved and 3,000 pounds to those in hospital overnight. Bereaved relatives will be given at least 10,000 pounds in total, with an additional payment for each dependent child. Seriously injured survivors will receive up to 15,000 pounds. And those unable to work for more than four weeks will be offered up to 3,000 pounds.
