Family handoutA man has been offered £25,000 after the government failed to properly process damages owed to him under the Windrush Compensation Scheme.
Thomas Tobierre, who arrived in the UK in 1960, was forced to cash in his £14,000 pension after being denied the right to work due to a lack of documentation.
The 71-year-old, from Chelmsford, Essex, appealed to the Windrush scheme to be repaid for the money he used to stay afloat, but was rejected.
The Home Office, which was found to have been “confusing and inconsistent” in how it ran the scheme by the the Parliamentary Ombudsman, said it was committed to running it “effectively”.
Officials have been reviewing its decision to exclude private pension losses from claims, meaning others could be entitled to further compensation.
Mr Tobierre was aged seven when he arrived in the UK from Saint Lucia, and married British citizen Caroline in 1975.
After working for more than 40 years, he was made redundant in June 2017, but could not prove he was able to live and work in the UK when seeking another job.
He was left with little choice but to live on his savings and cash in his private pension.
Family handoutFollowing the Windrush scandal emerging, Mr Tobierre was granted his UK employment rights and returned to work in 2018.
He was compensated by the Windrush Compensation Scheme in 2021 for loss of access to employment, but an investigation has now found he was underpaid as his pension withdrawal was not taken into account.
The Parliamentary Ombudsman said of the Home Office: “Its decision-making and communication about its pensions approach was confusing and inconsistent.”
The Home Office agreed to pay Mr Tobierre £25,000 in compensation after the report was published, the ombudsman said.
Also included in that payout was Mr Tobierre’s 40-year-old daughter, Charlotte, who was affected by a claim made by her mother.
Caroline Tobierre applied for compensation to help with her funeral costs after being told she had months to live in August 2021.
Her family spent her final months fighting her claim, which was ultimately unsuccessful before her death in November that year.
The ombudsman found the claim had been handled “insensitively” and thus “compounded the family’s distress”.
Family handoutCharlotte Tobierre said: “It was exhausting. We were absolutely consumed by it and that overshadowed my mum’s cancer journey.
“I felt sad afterwards thinking we wasted so much time talking about Windrush and we missed spending precious time together.”
The ombudsman recommended the Home Office apologise to the family, review its complaint handling and reconsider excluding pension loss.
Up to the end of July 2025, the Windrush Compensation Scheme had paid £115m across 3,435 claims.
A Home Office spokesman said: “This government is delivering on its commitment to ensure Windrush victims’ voices are heard, justice is sped up and the compensation scheme is run effectively.
“We have accepted all of the ombudsman’s recommendations and have apologised to the Tobierre family.”
