The Troubles Permanent Disablement Payment Scheme opened for applications on 31 August 2021.
The Victims' Payment Board is responsible for running the Scheme which is intended for those with severe and permanent injury (whether physical or psychological). This means that not every victim or survivor will be eligible.
If you need information and support to engage with the Victims’ Payment Board or make an application to the Scheme, this can be accessed directly through the following VSS funded organisations:
The Victims' Payment Board can also be contacted by emailing vpb@justice-ni.gov.uk, or by telephone on 0300 200 7808.
The Troubles Permanent Disablement Scheme opened for application on 31 August 2021.
Mr Justice McAlinden announced his intention to open the Troubles Permanent Disablement Payment Scheme for applications on 30 June 2021.
The Victims’ Payments Board will be responsible for determining who is entitled to payment in respect of an injury caused by a Troubles-related incident.
Following the missed deadline of 29 May, the Commissioner and the Victims and Survivors Forum wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister of the UK to deliver on this legal obligation.
The Commissioner, Forum, the WAVE Injured Group and other victims' groups continued to lobby Governments at Westminster and the Northern Ireland Executive to implement this Scheme.
The Regulations for the Victims Payment Scheme are laid at Westminster. Some of these regulations came into effect by the end of February, the rest came into effect at the end of May 2020.
The legislation for the Scheme can be accessed here.
As no Executive was in place by 22 October 2019, The Northern Ireland Office launched a public consultation on a ‘Victims’ Payment Scheme’ that same day. It was open for 5 weeks, closing on the 26 November 2019.
The Government at Westminster committed to establishing cross-departmental teams to deliver a Victims’ Payment if Northern Ireland remained without an Executive by 22 October.
Following rounds of political engagements on the final updated advice, the Commissioner publicised and launched the VASPA advice to the wider public at an event at Stormont with extensive media coverage.
Former Commissioner Judith Thompson submitted updated advice on a Victims and Survivors Pension Arrangement to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. This advice was also informed by the WAVE Injured Group, the Commission’s Pension Working Group and the Victims and Survivors Forum.
In the absence of a Northern Ireland Executive, the former Secretary of State, Karen Bradley, asked former Commissioner, Judith Thompson to update the 2014 pension advice. It was to include psychological injury.
In the Stormont House Agreement, the five main political parties in Northern Ireland made a commitment to seek an acceptable way forward on the proposal for a pension for severely physically injured victims in Northern Ireland.
Former Victims Commissioner, Kathryn Stone, with guidance from the WAVE Injured Group and the Victims and Survivors Forum, submitted advice to the First and deputy First Ministers on a ‘Pension for the Severely Injured’.
This advice stated that more needed to be done to help those who lost the ability to work and accrue pensions and who lost their health as a consequence of the Troubles and recommended a Victims and Survivors Pension Arrangement to address this.