A twin sister and brother were separated from their parents in Ireland\u2019s mother and baby home scandal \u2013 but only one of them can be compensated without being penalised.<\/p>\n
Rosemary Adaser, 70, of Ealing, west London, was among tens of thousands of children placed in abusive institutions <\/a>for being born out of marriage in Ireland.<\/p>\n But if Adaser accepts compensation under the Irish mother and baby institutions payment scheme, which opened in 2024, she faces losing at least \u00a31,000 a month in housing benefit.<\/p>\n A legal loophole means because the compensation she is due is from a foreign government, normal \u201ccapital disregard\u201d provisions do not apply, and any payments can be treated as cash savings for means-testing benefits and social care.<\/p>\n Rosemary\u2019s brother, Anthony Adaser, still lives in Ireland, so has been compensated without facing penalties. He says the unfairness of the disparity is \u201cgalling\u201d, robbing his sister of the \u201cpeace of mind\u201d his settlement has given him in retirement.<\/p>\n Rosemary Adaser aged seven on her first communion day<\/p>\n On 13 March, the prime minister, Keir Starmer, said the Westminster government would introduce \u201cPhilomena\u2019s law\u201d, which would protect survivors from penalties<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, with no legislative timetable and no interim protections in place, about 13,000 survivors still risk losing benefits, and campaigners say elderly people are fighting individual battles with the authorities.<\/p>\n Adaser said: \u201cThis is just another institutional abuse. I raised my family without any recourse to benefits. Now, when I\u2019m unable to work, the government\u2019s inaction is killing me off.<\/p>\n \u201cSurvivors are terrified to show their faces in case their benefits are cut and are dying without their due. I\u2019m too terrified to apply for compensation, because I need housing benefit to stay independent and I\u2019m terrified of being institutionalised again.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the compensation, I\u2019d be able to make it safe for me to continue living in my home.\u201d<\/p>\n Rosemary Adaser (second row, second from right), aged 12<\/p>\n The twins were born in an unmarried mother\u2019s home in Belfast, the children of a Ghanaian doctor and an Irish hospital receptionist.<\/p>\n