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What is the infected blood scandal and will victims get compensation?


The total cost of compensation is expected to run into billions.

The government has published a document setting out the amounts that individuals can expect to get, external.

A person infected with HIV, for example, can expect to receive compensation of between £2.2m and £2.6m. These are average ranges rather than upper and lower limits.

Those with a chronic hepatitis C infection, defined as lasting more than six months, could expect to receive between £665,000 and £810,000.

Examples of compensation awards for the family members of those infected are also given.

The partner of someone infected with HIV who is still alive today, for example, should expect to receive around £110,000, while a child could get £55,000.

If their loved-one has died and they were financially dependent on them, annual payments are available.

Outlining the scheme, Cabinet Office Minister John Glen said payments – which the government expects to start before the end of the year – would be exempt from tax and would not affect benefits.

In cases where people who would be entitled to compensation have died, the money will go to their estate.

Before final compensation is delivered, he said interim payments of £210,000 will be made, starting from the summer.

The government has been criticised for waiting until after the publication of the final report to announce what compensation will be offered.

Bereaved families heckled the prime minister in July 2023 when he told inquiry that the government would act as “quickly as possible”.

In late 2022, following advice from the inquiry, the government made interim payments of £100,000 each to around 4,000 surviving victims and some bereaved partners.



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