More people will be able to claim compensation this year as the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA) accelerates the number of claims, while continuing to build and expand its claim service.
Currently, the claim service is starting small as IBCA designs and builds it. By mid-January, 67 people had been asked to start their claim, and IBCA is on track for 250 people to start their claim by the end of March for those who are registered with an existing support scheme.
Now, the expansion of the service after those 250 people have started their claims has been confirmed. IBCA will widen the service to further groups of people in stages and, from April, intends to accelerate the number of claims it is processing for people who are infected and already registered with a support scheme.
The service will be built to take claims from groups in the following order (not all claims in each group need to be completed before another group begins):
- living infected people who are already registered with a support scheme (payments for this group are already underway)
- supplementary claims (where additional impacts are recognised, beyond the core compensation)
- people claiming on behalf of registered estates
- people who are affected and linked to a registered infected person or registered estate
- people infected but not registered with a support scheme
- people applying on behalf of an estate not registered with a support scheme
- and people who are affected and not linked to a registered claim.
Some people from all groups are expected to be able to claim in 2025, although not all claims from all groups will be completed by then.
For all groups, IBCA will explore how those who are nearing the end of their life due to illness may be able to come forward first in their group.
David Foley, Interim Chief Executive of IBCA, said:
Every single compensation claim is unique with complex circumstances. That is why we started with a small number of people making the first compensation claims, building and improving the claim service as we go.
We’re continuing that approach as we open up our service to more people with a range of different types of claims, so we can get a better understanding of their circumstances and design the service with everyone’s needs in mind.
As we have already tested the service for those who are infected and registered with a support scheme, we will also accelerate the number of claims we’re processing in this group.
We asked community members for their views, as it is only by understanding the needs of each person applying for compensation and working with the community that we’re able to open our service to more and more people. We are confident that starting small and testing as we go will deliver compensation for everyone eligible more quickly overall, and I’m pleased that we are now able to increase claims further in 2025.
Members of the infected blood community, and those who represent them, were asked for their views on the order in which different groups could claim. IBCA also reviewed feedback received through a range of channels including email, letters, calls and social media.
Where possible, IBCA took those views onboard and will now widen the claim service in stages to begin paying compensation to more people as soon as possible.
IBCA was set up in May 2024, and the first set of regulations allowing us to make payments came into force in August 2024. While designing and building a new organisation and a claim service, we invited the first claims in October 2024 and made the first compensation offers in December 2025. In January 2025, compensation offers totalled more than £13 million, and more are being processed every week.
