Did you know you can claim for Criminal Injuries Compensation whether a conviction was sought or not?
Here at KASP, we love to keep you informed on various topics around childhood sexual abuse. The team have been brainstorming new topics to share and spread awareness throughout the month of September. This blog talks about criminal injuries compensation claims for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse.This is not something that’s widely discussed in a therapeutic setting and we do find that not all clients are aware of the scheme.
We have pulled together some information from the GOV.uk website below.
What is the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme?
The Scheme is a government funded scheme designed to compensate victims of violent crime in Great Britain. We, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA), administer the Scheme and decide if applicants are eligible and assess the appropriate value of any award.
What payments are available from the Scheme?
CICA can consider claims for the following:
- mental or physical injury following a crime of violence;
- sexual or physical abuse;
- loss of earnings – where you have no or limited capacity to work as the direct result of a criminal injury;
- special expenses payments – these cover certain costs you may have incurred as a direct result of an incident. You can only ask us to consider special expenses if your injuries mean you have been unable to work or have been incapacitated to a similar extent for more than 28 weeks;
- a fatality caused by a crime of violence including bereavement payments, payments for loss of parental services and financial dependency; and funeral payments.
Eligibility
CICA can compensate victims of violent crime, or people whose loved ones have died as a result of a crime of violence. You will also need to meet all the remaining requirements and eligibility criteria within the Scheme to receive an award of compensation.
Reporting the incident to the police
The Scheme requires that the incident has been reported to the police. If the crime for which you are seeking compensation has not been reported to the police, we cannot make a payment.
In particular CICA will consider:
- your age, capacity and well-being at the date of the incident and
- whether the effect of the incident was such that it could not reasonably have been reported earlier.
Time Limits for applying
You must apply as soon as it is reasonably practicable for you to do so. If you were an adult at the time of the incident, this should normally not be later than two years after it occurred. We can only extend this time limit where:
- due to exceptional circumstances an application could not have been made earlier; and
- the evidence provided in support of the application means that it can be determined without further extensive enquiries by a claims officer.
The Scheme does not require an offender to have been convicted and all compensation decisions are made.
Applying for a payment
You can apply for compensation on the CICA website.
The application process should take no longer than 20 minutes. If you have no access to online services or need help to complete your application, our Customer Support Team can help.
Telephone: 0300 003 3601
Outside the UK: +44 (0) 203 684 2517
Free independent advice
Free independent advice may be available from local support or other charitable organisations.