Survivors of Ireland\u2019s mother and baby homes can continue to receive benefits in the UK after Downing Street agreed to protect payments.<\/p>\n
Keir Starmer bowed to pressure from campaigners to back a bill known as Philomena\u2019s law, which would ringfence survivors\u2019 benefits if they accepted compensation from Dublin.<\/p>\n
Up to 13,000 of the survivors who are living in Britain risked losing access to essential means-tested benefits<\/a> if they accepted compensation, which can range from \u20ac5,000 to \u20ac125,000 (\u00a34,230 to \u00a3105,000) depending on the length of time people were resident.<\/p>\n In a joint statement, the British and Irish governments acknowledged the victims\u2019 suffering. \u201cIn recognition of the lifelong impact of this, today the UK agrees to disregard payments under Ireland\u2019s mother and baby redress scheme<\/a>, ensuring that survivors in both countries are treated the same and can receive the compensation to which they are rightly entitled.\u201d<\/p>\n The decision followed an Anglo-Irish summit with Starmer and the taoiseach, Miche\u00e1l Martin. Campaigners including the actors Siobh\u00e1n McSweeney and Steve Coogan had urged the government to back Philomena\u2019s law, which was introduced in parliament by the Labour MP Liam Conlon.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was about more than redress payments,\u201d said Conlon, who welcomed the news. \u201cIt was also about ensuring that we tackle the stigma and shame that have wrongly followed so many women and their children for so long, and about showing thousands of survivors the kindness and dignity they have so often been denied throughout their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Philomena Lee, a survivor, said no amount of money could undo the pain or give back what was taken from so many women. \u201cBut recognition, accountability and redress do matter, and no survivor should ever be penalised for accepting the compensation they are rightfully owed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n