London: The compensation program offered by the government, according to terror attack survivors in the UK, is "broken" and has treated people in a "shocking" manner.
In a recent report from Survivors Against Terror, 130 victims of 11 attacks provided their opinions on the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, with more than two-thirds of respondents labeling it "unfair and unreasonable."
Sixty percent of respondents said it was difficult to file claims for compensation, 62 percent said they did not feel treated with respect or empathy, and more than half said they did not feel they could speak with someone at CICA for support.
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In one instance, a woman who was a victim of a fatal mass shooting in Tunisia received instructions to repay money that had been granted to her.
The woman, whose husband was killed by a Daesh gunman at a resort in 2015, received £5,000 ($6,545) from CICA, was instructed via "threatening letters" to return the money "within 30 days" after she also won a compensation claim against the company that organized her family's vacation, TUI.
"I was shocked," she remarked. "It was just so upsetting to be asked to pay back the money I had used to help pay for my husband's funeral, I couldn't believe it.
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In contrast to being treated as a victim or a survivor, "I feel like I am being accused of doing something wrong."
The far-right terrorist who killed Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016 was her husband, Brendan Cox, who described CICA as "broken."
"An organization that is supposed to be helping survivors recover and rebuild is instead consistently doing them harm," said Cox, a co-founder of SAT and co-author of the report.
"There would be hope for reform if the organization had weak processes and procedures but performed well in other areas. The answer is no.
The government promised in 2019 to establish a new Survivors' Charter that would guarantee survivors' rights to mental health and legal support, but it has yet to do so, according to SAT.
According to the group's report, a new compensation plan should be established with more openness regarding payout distribution.
Some survey participants claimed they hadn't yet received payment. A 2017 Manchester Arena bombing survivor stated, "After five years, I am still waiting for CICA to settle my claim, they lost all my notes."
An additional person claimed that her mother had "received more for a whiplash claim than I received for getting blown up in a bomb at my first concert."
Another bombing survivor, Joanne McSorley, claimed that despite suffering life-altering, permanent injuries, she was only given £25,000.
Actually, I'm stuck at home. Even my own shoes and coat won't stay on. It is a very, very different way of life," she said.
"I have faith in the government and the systems. I reasoned that since this was a terror attack, we would undoubtedly be taken care of. But it didn't go like that.
Because you constantly have to demonstrate that you are still in that state, I feel completely degraded by the process.
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"I feel like I'm being punished," she continued. You shouldn't have to submit an application, in my opinion. It ought to already be there. How are you? has not been asked of me by anyone. They are unconcerned. It's simply unfair. Nobody is interested.
According to Darryn Frost, who in 2019 used a narwhal tusk to fend off a terrorist in London Bridge, CICA is "a paper-based postal system, where you're in total darkness, you don't know where you are in the process... They also keep asking for more proof. You think you're being judged or are scrounging.
The UK government reported that 836 of the 859 applications related to the attack at the Manchester Arena had been resolved, and that it is "right survivors get the support they need, including through the publicly-funded Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme that has paid out more than £158 million to victims of violent crime in just the last year alone."
“But we know more must be done, which is why the government is reviewing the support available, to better address victims’ needs.”