Families of Troubles victims were failed by compensation system, report finds

Most families of Troubles victims were inadequately compensated for the deaths of their loved ones, with some receiving as little as £43 to arrange burials, a new report from Queen’s University has said.

The report said compensation awarded during the height of the Troubles was “unequal and inadequate”, with women being routinely discriminated against.

The research report, which was led by Professor Luke Moffett and Dr Kevin Hearty from the School of Law at Queen’s, was based on an archival review of compensation payments focusing on the period 1966-1976.

It said that, despite tens of millions of pounds being given to victims, on average less than £7,000 was awarded, with 60% of families receiving less than £5,000.

The report said women were “routinely discriminated against and devalued” and there were vast discrepancies in payments to victims killed in the same incidents even in the same family, which “diminished the loss next-of-kin felt and reinforced a hierarchy of victims”.

It said the scheme in place at the time failed to provide redress for suffering, awarding only loss of income or funeral costs.

It also said that widows and widowers of security forces members were often poorly compensated and added that payments were used in several killings by the security forces to settle with victims and avoid cases going before the European Court of Human Rights.

The researchers have proposed a bereaved payment scheme, to complement the current one for seriously injured victims of the Troubles through the Victims Payment Board.

Professor Moffett said: “Compensation for those killed during the Troubles was not fit for purpose.

“It belittled the loss and suffering of many victims, rubbing salt into the wounds of grieving families.

“Many families were paid a pittance for the death of their loved one.

“One mother received £112 after the murder of her two adult sons, a widower whose wife and mother-of-six was shot dead outside their home was awarded £84, and a father received £43 for his daughter killed in a bomb.

“Women, children, elderly, and co-habitees were failed by a system that only created a financial hierarchy of victims.”

He added: “With the Legacy Bill becoming law last week, victims’ legal avenues to seek redress through the courts have now been terminated.

“Over 50 years on from the start of the Troubles we need a bereavement payment scheme to properly acknowledge and redress the suffering experienced by bereaved victims.”

Dr Hearty said: “Any objective analysis of the cases contained within the report will reach the inescapable conclusion that the compensation scheme failed to provide acknowledgement to victims and to mitigate against material harms following bereavement.

“Instead, the picture that emerges is of a system intent on short-changing victims, testing their resolve for prolonged legal action, and closing off avenues for legal accountability.”

Victims’ Commissioner Ian Jeffers said: “This report highlights some key issues that really need to be addressed in terms of how we have – or more to the point, have not – looked after bereaved victims of the Troubles.

“It’s an area that my office is looking at very closely at the moment.

“We will be considering some of these recommendations they have made as we prepare our own advice to Government in the months ahead.”