When the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) announced changes to its processes in October 2024, the implications for survivors of abuse were immediate and alarming. The changes doubled the action timeframe from three to six months and limited updates to just twice a year. On paper, this might look like administrative fine-tuning. In reality, for survivors living with trauma it is something far more damaging.
The very act of bringing a claim can be re-traumatising. Survivors are often already battling anxiety, PTSD and depression. To then be met with months of silence from the body tasked with recognising and compensating their suffering is not just poor service – it is harmful.
Just a week after the announcement, following consultation with my colleagues who voiced similar concerns, I wrote to CICA outlining the serious risks of this new approach. I referred to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) and its clear recommendations that: victims and survivors need practical and emotional support when applying for compensation; applications relating to child sexual abuse should not be handled by the general pool of caseworkers; and that particularly complex and difficult cases should be handled by a dedicated caseworker.
I warned that it is not appropriate to offer a victim of abuse just two updates per year, pointing out that in our experience, applications are rarely decided in the first 12 months and our clients are often not allocated a dedicated caseworker despite the complexity of their cases. I also noted that while CICA received over 40,000 claims last year – the highest number since 2012 – the increase was fewer than 5,000 cases compared with the previous year, and steps had already been taken to manage demand, including recruiting 22 additional staff.
I followed up twice – in November and again in December 2024 – but received no reply.
By April this year, with no response, I had no choice but to take the matter to Alex Davies-Jones MP (pictured). Only then did an acknowledgement arrive, via the minister for victims.
While apologies were offered for the lack of response and assurances given that CICA is ‘embedding trauma-informed practices’ through staff training and consultation with charities such as Rape Crisis and Samaritans, these words felt depressingly familiar. They are the kind of placating noises survivors and their advocates have heard before, with little evidence of real change.
Recent correspondence between the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers and CICA indicates that the authority is exploring a fully digital end-to-end service to reduce paper-based communication and improve the applicant experience.
As part of this, on 24 September CICA introduced automated acknowledgement letters, ensuring that when applicants, their representatives, or medical professionals submit information such as medical reports, a tailored response is issued automatically.
CICA has also begun notifying applicants when police cannot provide information – for example, because of an ongoing investigation or scheduled court case – and confirming when it will next request an update. All correspondence now includes standard details on expected timescales.
While these changes mark a step forward, they remain limited. Automatic updates may be better than silence, but they fall short of what survivors of abuse need. More importantly, the wider proposals are still under review, with no commitment to funding and no delivery timetable. As a result, uncertainty continues – often for months or even years – with no meaningful change in sight.
Meanwhile, systemic barriers remain firmly in place. The government has refused to adopt two IICSA-backed reforms that would remove major hurdles to justice: extending the two-year time limit for claims, which fails to account for the reality that many survivors take years or decades to come forward; and revising the ‘unspent convictions’ rule, which unfairly excludes survivors whose offending was a direct consequence of the abuse they endured.
We cannot talk about trauma-informed justice while ignoring the realities of trauma. Survivors should not have to fight for basic communication, nor should they be penalised for the delays, fears or circumstances directly caused by their abuse. They must not be left to navigate a complex and unresponsive system alone, without proper guidance, updates or support.
CICA must commit to a published timeline for its digitisation review, with clear milestones and a firm delivery date. It must also introduce interim measures immediately to ensure survivors receive meaningful updates while longer-term changes are developed.
Dedicated caseworkers should be assigned to all complex abuse claims, in line with IICSA’s recommendations. The government must revisit the rejected reforms to ensure survivors are not excluded from justice by arbitrary deadlines or outdated rules.
Until the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority embraces both legislative reform and survivor-centred practice, it will continue to fall short – not because it cannot do better, but because it is choosing not to.
Nathalie Swanwick is a senior associate in the abuse law team at Simpson Millar, Manchester
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