Members of the same family who have applied for Windrush compensation are receiving different awards – however, the Home Office believes letting another department run the compensation scheme would be a bad idea, a parliamentary debate has revealed.

The House of Commons marked Windrush Day which was on 22 June, with a debate yesterday. The Home Office has repeatedly come under fire over the handling of the compensation scheme, with the Parliamentary Health and Service Ombudsman ordering the scheme to be improved following an investigation.

Labour’s Dawn Butler, MP for Brent East, told the Commons that ‘in exactly the same cases, sometimes in the same family, when people have presented their information, they have been given different awards. Some get no award, some get £10,000 and some get £40,000’.

One of her constituents, who is stuck in Jamaica, was offered £10,000 ‘but then was told that giving him that amount of money was a mistake, which has retraumatised him, and he is now showing signs of dementia’.

Butler called for the scheme to be taken away from the Home Office, ‘which should never have been the administrator of a scheme when it was responsible for the injustice it has inflicted on others’.

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Housing, communities and local government minister Nesil Caliskan acknowledged the frustration felt by victims in trying to secure compensation. ‘However, the Home Office view is that moving the scheme to a different department may risk a delay in payments altogether. The focus is really on improving the experiences of claimants at this point,’ she said.

Labour’s Helen Hayes, who moved yesterday’s debate, asked the minister to work with the Home Office and Ministry of Justice on giving Windrush claimants funded legal support. Hayes highlighted a landmark report that shows the difference that legal representation has made for Windrush claimants.

Caliskan said: ‘I take particular note of the important points made by honourable members, in particular on the disparity between the compensation secured when individuals apply for compensation alone versus the amount they might secure if they have legal advice. The Home Office will continue to listen and act on these concerns, and I will certainly be making that point in particular.’