CLOSE TO £35 million (€41M) has been paid out to those who suffered a significant injury as a result of violence during the Troubles.
An information campaign is being launched to attempt to reach potential applicants living outside of the North.
The Troubles Permanent Disablement Payment Scheme and provides payments to those living with physical or psychological injuries sustained in Troubles-related incidents.
A Troubles-related incident is described as one that took place “on or after midnight on 1 January 1966 but before 11:59 pm on 12 April 2010”.
The Victims’ Payment Board was established to determine applications made under the scene.
Leaflets with further information about the scheme will be delivered to every household in Northern Ireland from tomorrow.
The leaflet provides information on the key elements of the scheme, including background information, how to make an application, information around providing evidence, as well as signposting potential applicants towards the various groups who provide free support services to those wishing to apply.
The scheme opened for applications on 31 August, 2021 and the current closing date is 31 August, 2026.
To date, more than 6,500 applications have been received and more than £34.8 million (€40.7m) has been paid out to victims.
The Victims’ Payments Board said it is committed to raising awareness about the scheme to ensure everyone who may be eligible to apply can do so.
It is encouraging anyone from Britain, the Republic of Ireland, Europe and further afield who may have suffered a permanent physical and/or psychological disablement to consider applying.
More than 500 applications have already been received from outside Northern Ireland.
Paul Bullick, secretary to the Victims’ Payments Board, said as years pass it is becoming more urgent that those injured in the Troubles should make an application to the scheme.
“We are all aware of the many Troubles-Related incidents which have taken place across Britain, Ireland and wider Europe over the past five decades where many people received disabling injuries,” he said.
“As the years roll on, it is becoming more urgent that those injured in these Troubles-related incidents should make themselves known to us.
“We are receiving a large volume of applications, and it is important to stress that the decision process could be a lengthy one.
“These are complex matters, and no two applications are the same. Each one must be considered on its own merit and while we have taken steps to ensure that all applications are progressed in a victim-centric way, we would again ask for the public’s patience as we carry out the necessary checks.”
Jeanitta McCabe was 10 years old when she witnessed her father Peter McCabe being shot multiple times in her family home in Newry in 1990.
While both she and her father have been turned down for the scheme, her mother has been successful with her application to the same scheme.
A Troubles-related incident is described as “an incident involving an act of violence or force carried out in Ireland, the United Kingdom or anywhere in Europe for a reason related to the constitutional status of Northern Ireland or to political or sectarian hostility between people there”.
The Victim’s Payment Board stated that while the attack was carried out by a paramilitary organisation, it couldn’t conclude that it “related to political hostility”.
Jeanitta’s original application to the scheme was turned down last year, as was her appeal this year.
Newry MLA Justin McNulty told The Journal that was “impossible to understand how the Victims’ Payment Board could rule that the brutal shooting of Peter McCabe in the presence of his loved ones in their own home and the subsequent impact on his family was not Troubles related”.
The Victims’ Payment Board was approached for comment by The Journal on McCabe’s application to the scheme but said it is “unable to comment on individual cases”.
-With additional reporting from Press Association
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