Thread by @WindrushLives

Remember Sitting in Limbo? It's about Anthony Bryan and his wife, Janet McKay-Williams, 👌🏽 played by @peerobinson and @_NadineMarshall. It won an entire Bafta.

Guess how Anthony and Janet have been getting on with the Windrush Compensation Scheme?

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@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall Anthony arrived as an 8 yr-old in 1965. In 2015, he was fired, and lost access to benefits and the NHS along with his income. He was then detained and threatened with deportation, then released, then detained and threatened with deportation. He became a shadow of himself.
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@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall Janet held down the fort and supported him, putting her own life on hold. She chased MPs; compiled evidence; fought with staff at HO reporting centres; and with family and friends, scraped together the fees to win an injunction preventing Anthony's imminent deportation.
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@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall For the wholesale decimation of his life, including 2 spells of detention where he was threatened with deportation to a country he left at 8, Anthony was in June offered the princely sum of £96k. For suspending her life to keep him safe and in the country, Janet got £40k.
4/26

@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall They applied for a Tier 1 review. These are carried out by @ukhomeoffice caseworkers, the same ones who make the disgraceful awards in the first place. Janet heard back last week. The Home Office is confident it was right in valuing her suffering at £40k.
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@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice If you haven't watched Sitting in Limbo, I highly recommend you do so, preferably immediately. The scale and depth of the horror visited upon Anthony, Janet and their children is stomach-turning. The film tells it much better than I can.
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@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice For the years likely shaved off their lives from worry and illness, dispossession, threatened removal, mountains of debt accrued and legal battles over FIVE years, they've been awarded a combined total of £136k.

@MatthewRycroft1, the head of the HO, makes £180k. A year.
7/26

@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice @MatthewRycroft1 In fact, there are 7 HO officials who make over £135k. A year.

This isn't an attack on high earners in general. It's about a specific argument @ukhomeoffice is fond of - Windrush compensation must be frugally managed because "it's taxpayer money."
8/26

@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice @MatthewRycroft1 Let me break down the awards to Anthony and Janet, compensating them for 5+ years of agony, the combined total of which is comfortably exceeded by the annual taxpayer-funded salary of at least 7 @ukhomeoffice officials.
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@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice @MatthewRycroft1 Anthony received nothing for Immigration and Legal fees (Janet did not claim for this). This is largely because the category has been defined so as to rule out almost everything including - I wish this was a joke - any application which succeeded.
10/26

@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice @MatthewRycroft1 The fact that Anthony shouldn't have had to make applications for biometric enrolment or a Jamaican passport - i.e., but for @ukhomeoffice, these costs wouldn't exist - has not penetrated the HO's thinking.

Applications for Leave to Remain are excluded. Like, entirely.
11/26

@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice @MatthewRycroft1 For his two spells of detention for a total of 35 days, under threat of imminent deportation, and with a break in between where he was released and thought his nightmare was over, Anthony got £26k. This is exactly as specified in the rules. The maths isn't the problem.
12/26

@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice @MatthewRycroft1 Anthony had a thriving career as a painter and decorator before this nightmare began. That ended in 2016 b/c @ukhomeoffice threatened employers with fines if they kept staff who couldn't prove their status.

He has been offered nothing for loss of access to employment. £0.
13/26

@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice @MatthewRycroft1 Anthony's health has declined since this all began. He lost access to the NHS, and now has a serious chronic disorder of the progressive type - i.e. earlier intervention would have helped. But he couldn't register with a GP.

Denial of Access to Health Services - £0.
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@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice @MatthewRycroft1 B/c of the nature of the Windrush Scandal, the most impt category for the majority of applicants is Impact on Life - in theory, a holistic consideration of all intersecting aspects of life.

Anthony and Janet both have powerful cases. They literally made a movie about it.
15/26

@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice @MatthewRycroft1 Anthony received £70k, corresponding to Level 4 of the 5-level tariff system.

He at least did one level better than Janet, who got £40k (Level 3).

Let me take you through these tariff descriptors.
16/26

@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice @MatthewRycroft1 Janet has spent the past 5 years fighting Anthony's corner to every possible authority. She suffered immense psychological harm in having to witness her partner being taken away and threatened with deportation. She mobilised and fought for an injunction to stop his removal.
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@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice @MatthewRycroft1 There's a memorable scene in Sitting in Limbo where Anthony goes off the grid for a few hours. The TV-Janet loses the plot; when he finally comes back, she berates him, b/c she thought he had been taken, again. The absolute terror in @_NadineMarshall's face stays with you.
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@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice @MatthewRycroft1 I don't know if that particular scene unfolded in that exact way IRL, but I don't need to. The fear, isolation and insecurity underpinning that single shot have flooded Janet's life since 2015. Nothing about that is normal, relatively or otherwise.
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@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice @MatthewRycroft1 For Impact on Life, Anthony received the Level 4 award of £70k.

I'm not even going to try explaining why this is absurd, because the throbbing vein in my forehead might actually break free. See above.
20/26

@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice @MatthewRycroft1 Anthony hasn't heard back from his Tier 1 review just yet, but draw your own conclusions based on the preceding.

The Windrush Compensation Scheme is a fresh insult to people who have been selectively harassed by @ukhomeoffice and systematically deprived of their rights.
21/26

@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice @MatthewRycroft1 In order to fight this, we need ammunition - in this case, data.

We and @GoodLawProject are running a survey for anyone eligible for the Scheme - whether you've applied already, or not, if the Scheme is relevant to you, we need to hear from you.

windrushlives.goodlawproject.org
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@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice @MatthewRycroft1 @GoodLawProject It takes a max of 10 minutes, and the information comes only to us - the Home Office has no part of this. You don't even have to give your name if you don't want to. We just need to know what you think of the Scheme - whether you've gone through it or not.
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@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice @MatthewRycroft1 @GoodLawProject The rules for eligibility are explained on the survey page, but in brief, if you are a postwar Windrush emigre (or have a parent or other family member who is), and you've suffered b/c of inability to prove your legitimate status in the UK, it's likely you will be eligible.
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@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice @MatthewRycroft1 @GoodLawProject If you're not a Windrush victim, please share this link far and wide. This is crucial.

While we work on that, you could also support the Windrush Justice Clinic, which needs caseworkers to help claimants navigate this omnishambolic mess.
uk.gofundme.com/f/windrush-jus…
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@peerobinson @_NadineMarshall @ukhomeoffice @MatthewRycroft1 @GoodLawProject Consider if any part of what Anthony and Janet have been through is even vaguely acceptable. Except for EUSS, the hostile env selects almost exclusively - somehow - for Black/brown victims. The Home Office knows this.

This can't go on. #WindrushInjustice #BreakTheHE
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