HIA-7 Response Accepted

Compensation Amounts and Caps

Recommendation

We recommend that the amount of compensation should therefore consist of one or more of the following elements. (i) A standard payment of £7,500 payable to anyone who was abused, including those who experienced a harsh environment, or who witnessed such abuse. (ii) An additional payment of £20,000 in respect of a person sent to Australia under the Child Migrants Scheme. (iii) An additional enhanced payment to anyone who was more severely abused. The maximum amount of compensation payable in respect of (i) and (iii) should not exceed £80,000, and the maximum payment in respect of (i), (ii) and (iii) should not exceed £100,000.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
- The Historical Institutional Abuse (Northern Ireland) Act 2019 established the compensation structure, including a standard payment of £7,500, additional payments of £20,000 for those with special circumstances, and further payments up to a maximum (Historical Institutional Abuse (Northern Ireland) Act 2019).
- The HIA Redress Board has been making payments in accordance with the statutory structure since March 2020 (HIA Redress Board).
How was this evidence gathered?
Evidence searched by Claude (Anthropic) on 10 Apr 2026
Checked data held on this site (government responses, progress updates, independent evidence)
Jurisdiction
Northern Ireland
Response
Accepted
Accepted Northern Ireland Executive
05 Nov 2019

No formal government response published.

Read Full Response
Progress Timeline
Official Report
05 Nov 2019

The specific compensation amounts and caps were provided for in the Historical Institutional Abuse (Northern Ireland) Act 2019, including a standard payment of £7,500, an additional payment of £20,000 for child migrants, and an enhanced payment up to a maximum of £100,000.

Published Evidence

Published assessments of progress from inspectorates, select committees, official progress reports, and other sources. Source type badge indicates whether each assessment is independent or government self-reported.

Reasonable Progress
01 Jan 2025
The Executive Office (NI) Other

Ongoing funding commitment to Child Migrants Trust, including through the HIA Redress Board which provides a specific £20,000 payment for persons sent to Australia under the Child Migrant Programme.

View detailed findings

The Child Migrants Trust receives funding from the Department of Health & Social Care to operate the Family Restoration Fund, which helps reunite former child migrants with families. The HIA Redress Board also recognised child migrants with a dedicated payment category under the scheme.

Child Migrants Trust website and HIA Redress Boar… View Source
Source
Report Report of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry 20 Jan 2017
Responsible Bodies
Northern Ireland Executive Primary
Recommendation age 9.4 yrs
Last formal update 2399 days ago