The Cabinet Office has announced that they had made an error in the first set of the Government’s parliamentary regulations, published in August 2024. Whilst IBCA has correctly processed all claims accurately to the regulations, this means that people who opted for ongoing support payments will be entitled to an additional corrected payment.
We're contacting everyone impacted to explain the Cabinet Office’s error, and how they will receive the additional corrected payment, as well as an ex-gratia payment that the Minister for the Cabinet Office has offered to those who received the wrong original amount. IBCA will process both of these payments as we have the bank details for those impacted.
An explanation of the error in the 1st regulations
The error is in regulation 25 and 26 of the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Regulations 2024. These are the Regulations under which compensation was calculated and relate to the Care and Financial Loss awards, which were split into two parts: past and future.
The formulas used in the regulations were created in such a way that any calculation made would have slightly too much future award and slightly too little past award. Those who have accepted a compensation offer with ongoing support payments will be due an extra payment. The value of the corrected payment is around 1% of the total value of the agreed compensation award.
The error does not affect the calculation for the ‘core’ route, so payments to all those who have accepted this route are correct.
The error also does not affect any offers that will be made after April, as the second regulations, which we expect to be approved by Parliament, include the correct formulas.
What IBCA is doing about this
IBCA is contacting all of the people who have agreed the ‘IBSS route’ compensation, which includes ongoing support payments, to explain the issue and when the additional payment, plus the goodwill payment, will be made.