THE launch of the long awaited pension scheme for victims of the Troubles has been welcomed by victims support group Relatives for Justice although they maintain some concerns with regards to how it will be rolled out.
The groups Deputy Director, Andrée Murphy advised applicants to seek assistance before submitting their application.
“We have a dedicated office space in our Brompton Park office for people who want support applying to the payment scheme. We would advise anyone applying to seek advice as they go because you get one chance at making your application and you have to make that application as robust as you can.
“This is a good scheme for some people but there are a lot of people left behind. People who have a permanent psychological injury as a result of the killing of their loved one, if they weren’t at the scene they are not eligible. We think that Stormont need to move speedily to address that gap and not leave the bereaved behind.
“We are keeping under very tight watch the applications that are being made by the psychologically injured. From what we can tell it is going to be a very difficult process for the psychologically injured.
“At the minute there aren’t any assessors for it and their applications are going to take far longer than the physically injured so we are going to be monitoring that very tightly.”
Ms Murphy also highlighted the groups concerns about the role of CAPITA in the assessment process.
“CAPITA are responsible for developing the psychologically injured measuring tool and we are very concerned that given the experience of many of the same people who are going to be making applications to this who have been through PIP, we are very concerned that this process wouldn’t be a retraumatising one unlike the PIP process.
“We will be supporting families closely through this. We can’t provide assurances to any applicant that the experience is not going to be something similar because there is a lot of gaps in information. We know that they don’t have the tool and we are very concerned.”
The scheme is being administered by the Victims’ Payments Board. Further details can be found on the Victims’ Payments Board website.
For more information or advice contact the Relatives For Justice advice team on 028 96 949327. Further information is available on the Relatives For Justice website.
