Pressure is mounting on the Government to fundamentally reform the system for compensating victims of violent crime, amid claims that the process itself is compounding trauma through excessive delays and a bewildering application process.
"Horrendously complex" process causing further distress
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA), the body responsible for administering payouts, is facing intense criticism. Its latest annual report reveals that nearly a fifth of claimants wait over two years for an initial decision, with some cases dragging on for more than five years. Furthermore, more than a third of appealed decisions are successfully overturned, indicating significant flaws in initial assessments, while the number of formal complaints has more than doubled in a year.
Natalie Queiroz, 49, who survived a horrific stabbing attack in Sutton Coldfield in 2016 while eight months pregnant, described the system as a "horrendously complex process." She was stabbed 24 times and, along with her unborn daughter, required lifesaving treatment. Applying for compensation for them both, she criticised the requirement for victims to rank their own injuries.
"I incurred significant traumatic injuries in my chest... Nobody knew how my lungs would recover," Ms Queiroz explained. "So, you end up in this situation of how do I rank them? Then there’s often psychological elements... but you have to pick your top three." She highlighted the cruel timing of the application, which comes when victims are still recovering: "You’re in this kind of horrible situation where you are recovering from physical and emotional trauma, you’ve got this complex form, and you’re thinking ‘I don’t know what the extent of these injuries will be.’"
Political pressure builds for a "victim-first" approach
The mounting concerns have spurred political action. A dozen Labour MPs, led by Laurence Turner, the member for Birmingham Northfield, are supporting a Private Member’s Bill that would mandate a "fundamental" review of the entire CICA scheme. Mr Turner, who himself applied to CICA after a violent assault requiring four operations, told the Press Association of his "typical experience": "Impersonal contact, very long delays... and the outcome never felt like adequate recompense." He waited almost two years for resolution, noting: "By the time you get to the end... lots of victims just want the process to be over."
This sentiment is echoed by Alex Mayes of Victim Support, who urged for a "victim-first approach to compensation claims." He stated: "We definitely need to be in a place where CICA are processing claims at pace... victims don’t need to be in a position where they’re waiting years and years for an outcome."
Labour MP Alex Sobel (Leeds Central and Headingley) cited constituents who had waited up to six years, with medical evidence being lost by the authority. He criticised a "lack of oversight and rigour" in the organisation's governance.
Government defends record amid rising applications
The Ministry of Justice has attributed the problems to a record number of applications. A spokesperson said: "The rise in complaints reflects record application volumes and CICA is strengthening its service by hiring more staff and improving how victims can contact it."
However, this response has done little to assuage critics. The late Victims’ Commissioner, Baroness Newlove, was a vocal critic before her death in November 2025. She reported in 2019 that the system was adding to victims' distress. Despite a government consultation launched five years ago to simplify the scheme, Justice Minister Alex Davies-Jones recently declined to implement key recommendations, arguing that changes benefiting some victims could be "detrimental to other deserving victims of crime."
Ms Queiroz, now the Victims' Commissioner for the West Midlands and an MBE, summarised the pervasive feeling among applicants: "People just find it really confusing, really quite scary, don’t really understand it, some people call it like a dark art of how you write out the forms to get compensation." She also advocates for the scheme to be extended to cover unborn babies physically affected at birth due to a crime, after her own daughter's initial claim was rejected before being won on appeal.
With waiting times stretching to half a decade, a soaring overturn rate on appeal, and victims reliving trauma through a complex bureaucratic maze, the calls for an urgent and comprehensive overhaul of the decades-old compensation scheme are growing louder.
