The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme – set up to award victims of criminal assault and injury, will be cut by £10m this year in a bid by the government to curb overspending. The scheme gives out awards ranging from £1,000 to £500,000 to victims of violent crime depending on the severity of their injuries.

Usually receiving a yearly budget of £211m, the CICA will see a cut of around 5% to £201m – giving rise to criticism by several organisations including the National Victims Association of whom Chairman David Hines called the move “an outrage”.

“Quite frankly it should be increased by £200m and decent payouts made to the victims of homicide and victims of serious crime.”

It has been rumoured that minor injury compensation claims such as scratching or black eyes could be removed from the system altogether so that payouts can be made to it’s backlog of claims. A report by Victim Report remarked that several thousands of victims had to wait over 2 years to receive compensation from the CICA – when often it is the first few months after the incident that the money is needed the most.

The move comes after a statement made by the Justice Secretary Ken Clarke last year, urging parliament to give the fund more money.

“It simply has not received adequate funding in each year’s budget to keep up with the level of claims”.

During the next 4 years the Ministry of Justice has to find around 23% of savings – so this could be just the start of further cuts to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme…