Criminal injuries compensation: residency and nationality
Find out how the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme's residency and nationality requirements work.
Applies to England, Scotland and Wales
Nationality and residency criteria
You will only be eligible for a payment if you meet one of the residency, nationality or other requirements under paragraph 10. This means that you must have been ordinarily resident in the UK on the date of the incident or one of the conditions in paragraphs 11 or 13 of the Scheme is met.
Ordinarily resident in UK
Whether you are ordinarily resident in the UK for the purposes of the Scheme would depend on various factors, including:
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how often and for how long you are in the UK;
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the purpose and pattern of your presence;
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your connections to the UK. Relevant factors would be considered together to give a complete picture, and would include:
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family ties - having a spouse, civil partner, children or other close family members, in the UK;
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business ties - owning or being a director of a business based in the UK, or having employment, including self-employment, in the UK;
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property ties - property that you own or lease and in which you can stay when in the UK.
It is possible that you may have spent some time in another country but maintained strong ties to the UK, such as your job and house, which means that you remained ordinarily resident within the UK for the purposes of the Scheme. This may be the case if you were on holiday, studying abroad, or visiting a foreign country for some other reason.
Other ways of meeting the residency or nationality criteria
To be eligible to apply for a payment you must be able to show that you are:
A British citizen, regardless of where you normally reside;
An accompanying close relative of a British citizen or of a member of His Majesty’s armed forces is defined at paragraph 12 of the Scheme.
A national of a member state of the European Union (EU) or the European Economic Area (EEA).
A person who had a right to be in the United Kingdom by virtue of being a family member of an EU/EEA national.
A member of the armed forces or accompanying close relative.
A victim of human trafficking
If you have been identified by the Single Competent Authority as a victim of trafficking in human beings, you may also be eligible to claim.
They will help with appropriate identification, regularisation of immigration status and referral to support services where required.
You are responsible for giving us evidence to show that you have been officially identified as a victim.
If your status has not been confirmed when you submit your claim, you may ask us to wait before we make our decision. We call this deferring. It is your responsibility to ask us to defer your claim.
An asylum seeker
If you have made an application for asylum, in accordance with the Immigration Act 1971, you may also be eligible to apply if:
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you are granted temporary protection;
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you are granted asylum; or
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you are granted humanitarian protection.
If your status has not been confirmed when you submit your claim, you may ask us to defer our decision. It is your responsibility to request a deferral on your claim.
A national of a State party to the Council of Europe Convention of the Compensation of Victims of Violent Crimes (CETS No.116, 1983). Details of the countries who have signed up to this treaty can be found on the Council of Europe Treaty Office website.
When we get your claim we will tell you what information we need from you to establish your residency and nationality and we will verify this as needed. If you do not supply information that we ask for, we may refuse your payment.
Further eligibility requirements
You cannot get a payment if:
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you were injured before 1 August 1964 (before the first compensation scheme);
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you have already applied for compensation for the same criminal injury, whether under this or any other Scheme. An exception to this is if a previous application was reduced or refused on the basis that it occurred before 1 October 1979 and you and the assailant were living together as members of the same family. (Subject to this exception, if you deliberately apply for compensation for the same injury more than once, you may be prosecuted for attempted fraud);
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the person who injured you could benefit from your award.
Evidence
The responsibility for making a case for compensation lies with you. This means that you will need to provide us with the evidence necessary to decide your case
Residency
We will contact you if we need you to provide evidence to verify that you meet the residency requirements of the Scheme.
We will normally accept copies of official documents but if we are in any doubt about the authenticity of a document we will ask for the original.
Documents proving that you are ordinarily resident in the UK must have your name and a UK address on them. If we ask you for evidence you must supply at least one document from two of the three lists below. We may ask you for other documents if we decide that we need more evidence.
List A
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Pension or benefit correspondence from the Department of Work and Pensions
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Pay slips from your employer with your address on it
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Confirmation from your work, school, college, university or care institution confirming your name, address and details of employment, student or residence status
List B
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Bank or building society statements
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Credit card statements
List C
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Rent statements
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Council tax bill or demand letter
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Tenancy agreement
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Mortgage statements
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Utility bills (gas, electricity, water)
Nationality
We will contact you if we need you to provide evidence to verify your nationality. If we ask for evidence you will need to send us a copy of your current or previous (expired) passport. If you do not have a passport, we may ask you to provide other documentation to confirm that you satisfied the nationality requirement on the date of the incident which resulted in your injury. This could include:
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a letter from the authorities of your country confirming citizenship;
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a naturalisation or registration certificate; or
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a national identity card confirming citizenship.
If you are a serving member of His Majesty’s armed forces evidence to support this could include a letter from the service confirming your status, or official documentation which has a service accommodation address for you. Documentation to prove that you are a spouse or civil partner could include a marriage certificate or civil partnership document.
Documentation to prove that you are an accompanying close relative of a serving member of His Majesty’s armed forces could include:
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correspondence such as utility bills, bank statements, or pay slips addressed to you at the same address as a serving member of His Majesty’s armed forces;
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travel documents; or
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entry visas.
Last updated 23 September 2022 + show all updates
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Changing "Her Majesty" to "His Majesty"
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Update to reflect removal of Same Roof Rule
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First published.