Victims’ scheme launch sees joy and relief tinged with sadness

The opening of the Troubles Pension Disablement Payment Scheme (TPDPS). has been hailed as a “triumph” for those who were severely or permanently injured through no fault of their own.

The scheme – which goes live today at noon – was legislated for at Westminster in 2019 and will be overseen by the Victims Payment Board, headed by Mr Justice McAlinden.

It can allocate payments of up to £10,000 per year with a lump sum backdated to the signing of the Stormont House Agreement in December 2014.

Members of the WAVE group will gather on Tuesday at the Trauma Centre in Belfast.

Co-ordinator Alan McBride said: “This is a great day and this is a genuine good news story, one of the few to come out of the legacy of the past.

“It has been a long and hard journey for the most remarkable group of people you could hope to meet.

“They showed immense determination and refused to be deterred by setbacks along the way.

“At times it was desperately frustrating, but they never lost their focus on gaining tangible recognition for all those like themselves who had been severely and permanently injured through no fault of their own.”

Behind today’s relief that the scheme has finally been opened, Mr McBride said it is also a time when victims’ groups will “remember those who campaigned but didn’t live long enough to see this day”.

“People like Paddy Cassidy, who, like so many others, lived with constant pain yet came with us to London to lobby MPs and peers,” Mr McBride said.

“This pension is a lasting memorial to them.”

Mr McBride has also paid tribute to those who supported the campaign, including barrister Stuart Magee, who was instrumental in developing the model of the scheme.

He also praised the work of former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain.

Mr McBride said: “Without Peter Hain’s constant support in the House of Lords, where he raised the issue at every opportunity and eventually gave the Government no choice but to pass the legislation, it simply would not have happened.

“Everyone who will qualify for these payments owes Lord Hain a huge debt of gratitude.

“We have every confidence in Justice McAlinden and his colleagues who are administering the scheme that they will do their utmost to ensure that it runs as smoothly as possible and that those who have suffered so much through no fault of their own can look forward to a more secure future.”

Kenny Donaldson, director of services at the South East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF) said getting the scheme to this stage is “a consequence of a combined efforts by very many people”.

He said: “We want to acknowledge WAVE’s injured group and its menbers, local and national based politicians who worked positively to unlock the reality of the scheme, officials within the NIO, Department of Justice and the Executive Office, the Victims and Survivors Service, Victims Commission and the staff who have worked diligently in developing the scheme. And we also wish Capita well as it fulfils its important functions. We also recognise other groups who alongside SEFF will be providing support to those applying to the scheme”.

Mr Donaldson paid a special tribute to the work of Judge McAlinden “for his leadership” to date and said SEFF trusts that alongside Justice McAlinden’s payments board, those with permanent disablement will “finally receive belated financial recognition for wrongs they were subjected to”.

Mr Donaldson went on to say: “The legislation and the scope of individual whom can be supported is far from perfect and we have particular concerns for the experience some former members of the security forces will have with the scheme as well as many bereaved victims/survivors who were neither present a the point of the atrocity, nor in ‘the immediate aftermath’.

“We remain strongly of the view that a reparation payment scheme for the bereaved must be developed. The levels of compensation awarded in the 1970s – late 1980s in particular was nothing short of shameful”.

SEFF will formally launch its TPDPS welfare scheme in Cookstown on Tuesday night at an event involving partner groups as well as victims and survivors.

Mr Donaldson said: “Our officers (four of whom are based in NI and two in GB) with a service coordinator are available to support any innocent victim/survivor of terrorism or other Troubles-related violence from across the community. Please call us on: 028 677 23884 or log onto: www.seff.org.uk”.

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