The archive
Reporting and explainers on IBCA, eligibility, estates, evidence, awards, delays and how the compensation scheme works in practice. We separate official rules from the experiences people are having as they move through the process.
Latest in Compensation & Claims
The Government says deceased infected people receive the same core compensation as those still living. But look beyond the headline and death changes the calculation. Financial loss stops. Care is calculated differently. Families are left asking an uncomfortable question: when contaminated blood caused an early death, why should death also reduce what is recognised afterwards?
Read storyBereaved families are being invited to pursue infected blood compensation, only to discover that their claims cannot progress without probate or equivalent legal authority. Even the interim estate payment of up to £310,000 cannot be used to overcome that barrier: eligible families must already have probate or confirmation before applying. Some families say they have submitted wills believing these prove their authority, only to be told they are insufficient. Documentation must, of course, be properly verified—but are unsupported families being trapped in a system-generated bottleneck?
Read storyThe Government has explained how compensation for a person who died is calculated. What it still has not explained is where, anywhere in that calculation, the death itself is recognised.
Read storyThe infected blood scandal stole decades from thousands of families. The latest figures raise another uncomfortable question: how can the estates of those who died still be moving through compensation at such a painfully slow rate?
Read storyThe Infected Blood Compensation Scheme increases its Injury Award as chronic Hepatitis B or C becomes more severe—but once Level 4 is reached, the award stops rising. The illness, however, may continue progressing. The Infected Blood Family Support Network is asking the Cabinet Office to explain why.
Read storyBereaved families are being told that death is already recognised within the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme. But recognising injury is not the same as recognising a life lost — or the impact that death had on those left behind.
Read storyIBCA has apologised after serious concerns were raised over the handling of a deceased infected person’s estate claim, with senior leaders now reviewing what went wrong and preparing lessons learned.
Read storyThe people seeking infected blood compensation are victims of a national scandal. Why, then, does the language surrounding delivery sound increasingly like the vocabulary of benefits, banking and customer service?
Read storyA Cabinet Office reply attempts to explain recognition of death, care awards and financial loss. Read carefully, it confirms many of the concerns bereaved families have raised.
Read storyLiving infected people describe being required to prove a historic Hepatitis B diagnosis—only for the medical evidence they provide to be reinterpreted during the compensation assessment.
Read storyTwo affected people can suffer the same loss and carry the same trauma. But one date can determine whether their recognition survives them.
Read storyIBCA says it follows a clear invitation order. Families describe something they cannot reconcile with that promise. If the system is fair, publish the queue.
Read storyEvery unanswered email, unexplained pause and month spent waiting forces people to remain trapped inside the worst experiences of their lives.
Read storyIBCA says claims are being prioritised carefully. Across the infected blood community, many families describe something that feels very different.
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