Home Office Faces £1m Bill for Short-changing Victims of Trafficking

The government has been ordered to make back-payments to victims of trafficking that are likely to reach more than £1m, after a high court judge ruled that Home Office cuts to their support payments were unlawful. The ruling followed the department’s decision in March to reduce support payments to people it accepted were victims of trafficking from £65 per week to £37.75, a fall of 42%. The Home Office defended the change by saying it wanted to bring levels of support to victims of trafficking in line with support levels for destitute asylum seekers. The higher support level paid to victims of trafficking was in recognition of their higher support needs during their recovery from being trafficked. In a judgment that condemned the Home Office as failing in its duty to victims of trafficking, Mr Justice Mostyn ruled that the government acted unlawfully in reducing the payments and ordered back-payments likely to exceed £1m.

Read more: Diane Taylor, Guardian, https://is.gd/5xFbl8