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Windrush Generation

Last updated on: 22 February 2024

The Windrush Generation refers to people who arrived in the UK between 1948 and 1973, coming from Commonwealth countries (mostly Caribbean nations). Find out here if your country of origin is a Commonwealth country.

People arriving to the UK from the Commonwealth between these dates had the right to live and work in the UK permanently. However, most were unlikely to have been issued with any paperwork to prove their right to be here by the UK Government, other than perhaps a stamp in their passport.

For many years this was not a problem. However, as immigration enforcement measures increased under the “hostile environment”, people who could not prove they had a right to live in the UK were cut off from their rights and access to essentials such as work, driving licences, housing and healthcare.

This meant that many people who arrived in the UK as part of the Windrush Generation were unable to prove their status and suffered devastating consequences. Many people lost their jobs, lost their homes, could not access life-saving medical treatment and experienced a serious impact on their mental health and wellbeing. Some were also detained and removed from the UK.

In March 2020, the Windrush Lessons Learned Review confirmed that members of the Windrush Generation and their children have a right to live in the UK and should have not been treated this way by the UK Government.

If you or your family have been affected by this, you may be entitled to apply for confirmation of your status and compensation. This is also available to people from any country who arrived and settled in the UK before 1989, who have also found themselves without necessary evidence of their right to live in the UK.

If you are settled in the UK but do not have a document to prove it, you may be eligible to apply to the “Windrush Scheme” for a document that will prove your right to be in the UK. This document will help you to prove your right to work; rent a property; access welfare benefits and a pension; leave and return to the UK; and access healthcare.

If any of the following applies to you, you may be able to apply:

The application process is free of charge. The application form is available on the government website.

You might also be entitled to apply for citizenship for free if you are a Commonwealth citizen who settled in the UK before 1 January 1973, or you are the child of someone who did. 

There are residence requirements for British citizenship. This has often meant that some people who were wrongly prevented from re-entering the UK after travelling would have to wait a further 5 years before being able to apply for British citizenship. Recent favourable changes to the law mean that if you were wrongly prevented from re-entering the UK you no longer need to wait for 5 years before you become British.

For more information you can contact the Home Office’s Windrush Helpline:

Alternatively, you can look at the full eligibility criteria for the scheme.

The compensation scheme is open to those who have suffered any losses as a result of their inability to prove their right to live in the UK. These losses include, for example, losing your home or job or being separated from your family.

You can apply for compensation if any of the following apply:

  • you came to the UK from a Commonwealth country before 1973
  • your parents or grandparents came to the UK from a Commonwealth country before 1973
  • you came to the UK from any country before 31 December 1988 and are now settled here.

You can also apply if either of the following apply:

  • the close family member of someone eligible to claim and you have had significant losses yourself
  • representing the estate of someone who would have been eligible.

If your claim for compensation is successful, then payments made under the scheme will be disregarded in the calculation of Universal Credit and other means-tested welfare benefits. This means the money you are paid in compensation will not be taken into account when your eligibility for these benefits is being assessed; and that your benefits will not be interrupted by the compensation payment.

Home Office guidance and application forms on the scheme can be found on the government website.

If you need help applying to the scheme see the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants' website.

There are organisations in and around London able to support you with accessing the two schemes described above and in other ways. Some of these organisations are listed below:

  • Croydon African Caribbean Family Organisation UK: CACFO is a victim-led community group that is seeking fair and just compensation for victims of the Windrush scandal. They provide help and advice on how to settle their immigration status and, if eligible, to claim compensation to right the wrongs that have been done to them.
  • Justice for Windrush run by United Legal Access is a free legal advice clinic, providing assistance with starting your application to the compensation scheme and gathering the information and evidence needed to support your claim, review completed applications before they are sent off, and review compensation offers before acceptance.
  • Hackney Community Law Centre: HCLC is a charity employing solicitors and caseworkers to provide free and independent legal advice and representation to people living, working or studying in the London Borough of Hackney and surrounding boroughs.
  • South West London Law Centre (SWLLC) is a community law centre helping people on low incomes across south-west London to understand and defend their rights. Their expert lawyers provide free and independent legal advice on social justice issues, including housing, employment, debt, benefits and asylum.
  • Haringey Migrant Support Centre (HMSC) is a support centre helping migrants, irrespective of their status (especially those residing in Haringey and other London boroughs), by providing free, professional advice on immigration, housing and welfare issues, as well as signposting, casework and practical support, via a drop-in triage and appointment system.
  • Immigration Advice Service: IAS offer free, one-to-one advice for any ‘Windrush’ citizens currently residing in the UK. This advice will be tailored to individual situations and cases and is aimed at assisting those who are worried about their current status; have received a Home Office letter and are unsure of how to proceed; need document advice; or need advice about their British citizenship application.

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