Child abuse redress scheme pays out £32.5m in first 18 months

Payments totalling more than £32.5m were made to survivors of historic child abuse in Scotland during the first 18 months of the new redress scheme.

Newly released figures for Redress Scotland show 632 payments were made between December 2021 and June 2023.

The scheme was launched by former deputy first minister John Swinney, who said all applicants would be treated with “dignity, respect and compassion”.

Survivors of child abuse which took place before 2004 in a care setting are able to apply for compensation of between £10,000 and £100,000 through the official Scottish Government scheme.

In some circumstances, relatives of those who experienced abuse can apply for payments of £10,000.

The scheme was backed by £115 million of public money.

A report released on Tuesday said the Scottish Government had received 2,343 applications from survivors and 146 from next of kin.

Of these, a total of 874 applications were passed on to Redress Scotland.

The report said: “Applications not yet sent to Redress Scotland include those awaiting further information from the applicant and those requiring further verification.

“In some cases, individuals have not yet given Scottish Government permission to send their application to Redress Scotland.”

As of June 6 there were 632 payments issued totalling £32,544,410.

The majority of applications were for individually assessed payments, where an individual can receive up to £100,000.