How we will expand our service

In 2025 we will continue to build the claim service so that it can process every type of compensation claim.

We know that every person who’s entitled to compensation is unique, with their own personal circumstances. We need to make sure our service works for everyone, and that we balance this with the need to open our service to more people.

What’s happening

• In 2025 we can open the service more widely, but we need to do this in stages to make sure it is effective and secure for everyone
• Different groups of people will be able to start their claim at each stage
• Not all claims in each group have to be finished before developing and opening the service for others
• We have spoken to community representatives for views on which groups start their claim in which order
• Wherever possible we’ve taken all views on board, and have also considered feedback received by email, letter, calls and social media
• We’ll keep testing and developing the service, with more people starting their claim as we go, and widening out to more groups as soon as we can

The stages when groups will be able to start their claim

The stages and order we’ll work through as we build the claim service will be:

• Living infected people who are already registered with a support scheme. This is because we can already access their details through the existing support schemes, and know they are already eligible for compensation. We have already started making payments to this group, and will increase the number of claims in this group through 2025.
• Supplementary claims. When the second regulations pass through Parliament we will - in law - be permitted to process these claims. People have told us that they want to settle their whole claim as quickly as possible, so when we have the new regulations in place we want to support people with this. We will need to work through and test how we will process supplementary claims, because the type of evidence people will need may be more complicated. But we’ll aim to do this as soon as possible so that we can process both a core and supplementary claim at the same time.
• Registered estates. Those claiming on behalf of registered estates have already met the eligibility requirements of their support schemes, so we can access and check this data. Paying one estate claim will often result in money reaching multiple people through the processing of a single claim, which could include both affected and infected people.
• People who are affected and linked to a registered infected person or registered estate. If an affected person dies before their claim is paid, then their own claim will not be paid to their estate. Community members told us it was important to recognise that their claim will die with them. The eligibility of an affected person is determined by their relationship to an infected person. Therefore, if an infected person (or estate) is registered, then we know the affected people linked to that person are likely to be eligible for compensation.
• People who are infected but not registered with a support scheme (unregistered infected). This could include people who are eligible for IBCA compensation but are not currently able to claim from a support scheme. We know it may take longer to work through unregistered claims because eligibility hasn’t been determined yet. It’s likely these claims will be more complex.
• Personal representatives applying on behalf of an estate that is not registered with a support scheme and people who are affected and not linked to a registered claim. In both cases, these will take longer because we will need to find these people and make sure they know they are eligible to claim.

For all groups, we are exploring if those who are nearing the end of their life due to illness can be identified first when we are open to claims from their relevant group.

In addition, we will develop the ability for another person to help with a claim, if the infected or affected person wants them to (sometimes known as a ‘proxy’, for example those with lasting power of attorney).

Timings

• We are aiming to start payments to some people in all groups by the end of 2025
• We won’t finish all payments by this time, but by developing and testing at each stage, some people from each group should have received their payments by the end of the year

As we quickly improve how the scheme and claim process work, we’ll open it to larger groups of people. This means we will have an efficient service that supports everyone in the infected blood community.

What happens next

We will keep you updated as we design the claim service, and as more groups start their compensation claims.