Troubles pension: Northern Ireland Office answers victims’ questions

People injured from 1966 to 2010 will be eligible for payments, ranging from £2000 to £10,000 per year depending on injuries. Applications for can be made from May and will be backdated to 2014.

Innocent Victims United spokesman Kenny Donaldson said that since the regulations were published on Friday, victims are asking if their next of kin will inherit the payments; What level of psychological injury will qualify; how people with undocumented mental trauma can prove injury, and if ex-security force members who were injured will qualify?

“Large numbers of victims are seeking assurances that perpetrators will not receive the support and that there won’t be loopholes left to accommodate them,” he added.

Victims campaigner Alan McBride of the Wave Trauma Centre helped lobby for the payments for years.

He believes that “in the vast majority of cases” people who claim psychological trauma will not be eligible because they will have to prove the injury is permanent – that they will not improve – and that it limits the quality of their life. Anyone without a proper diagnosis of mental trauma will be assessed by a psychiatrist appointed by the scheme’s panel, he said.

It will be “very difficult” to access payments for mental trauma as it was designed to help “the severe end of psychological trauma” he said.

Ex-security force members who have an injury related pension may qualify, but only to top up existing payments to a maximum of £10,000, he said.

The regulations state that applicants may qualify if their injury resulted in permanent disablement and amounts to at least 14% disablement.

They also state a person is disqualified where they have a conviction “whether spent or not” in respect of conduct which caused, wholly or in part, their injury.

People are also disqualified, the regulations say, where the scheme administrators or Secretary of State considers that a relevant conviction – or exceptional circumstances of the case – would make the payments “inappropriate”.

The regulations state that a partner or carer may inherit the payments for ten years and that such a person may also make a posthumous application for payments.

Victims Commissioner Judith Thompson said face-to-face assessments “must be handled sensitively” while DUP leader Arlene Foster welcomed the fact that money “will not be awarded to victim makers”. But Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill says the government “appears intent on excluding large sections of our society” from the money. Ulster Human Rights Watch welcomed the news but “will continue to pressurise Government for clarity” on how pereptrators are excluded.

The Northern Ireland Office provided the following answers to questions posed by the News Letter;-

1) Will the pension die with a victim or will their next of kin inherit it?

“The payment can be transferred for ten years on death of the injured person to a spouse, civil partner, cohabiting partner, registered carer or anyone who provided a substantial amount of care on a regular basis. The Board will have the discretion to consider other cases where those conditions are not met.”

2) What level of psychological injury must a victim have sustained to qualify?

“The scheme is open to those living with permanent disablement caused by injury through no fault of their own in a Troubles-related incident, whether physical or psychological injury. The approach taken will be to compare the effect of a relevant injury on an individual’s ability to undertake day-to-day activities with that of a healthy person of the same gender and similar age not living with the same injury and for a healthcare professional to quantify that impact as a percentage. That percentage must be at least 14% to qualify for the scheme (along with other eligibility criteria being met).”

3) What if a victim didn’t visit a doctor in the early days and internalised things, how will they be able to prove the impact upon their life?

“All applications will have to demonstrate that disablement is directly attributable to injury in a Troubles-related incident. This will include demonstrating presence at an incident. The scheme will help applicants gather existing paper evidence wherever possible and where necessary arrange for an examination by a healthcare professional with appropriate skills and qualifications.”

4) What will happen to ex-soldiers or police officers injured in the role of duty?

“The scheme will adjust awards directly for ongoing payments for the same injury through other public sector schemes, on the basis that these have not dissimilar purposes to that of our scheme. The spouse, partner or carer of someone who receives an adjusted award will be eligible to receive a transfer on death payment too.”

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