Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority had already offered reasonable compensation

What happened

Mr G applied to CICA for compensation for post-traumatic stress after witnessing a crime. CICA took over 15 months to decide his application and ultimately declined to award him compensation.

Mr G felt that CICA had delayed matters by only contacting his GP to begin with, rather than requesting records from all the relevant medical professionals. He also complained that it had written to his psychologist at the wrong address, and had refused to send him for an independent psychological assessment.

What we found

CICA acted in line with its policy when it only approached Mr G's GP. CICA can often obtain all relevant information this way without making unnecessary additional enquiries. We were satisfied that CICA had been reasonable in not sending Mr G for an independent assessment.

Although CICA took around 15 months to decide Mr G's application, it explained that post-traumatic stress cases are complex and can take longer to decide. On top of that, a significant part of the delay was caused by a third party outside of CICA's control. However, we did find that CICA had caused a one-month delay by writing to Mr G's psychologist at an incomplete address. As a result, its request was returned and had to be resent.

We did not uphold Mr G's complaint because CICA had already addressed its mistakes.

It had acknowledged the delay and paid Mr G £100 compensation. Unfortunately CICA did not offer this payment until Mr G complained to it about a separate matter. This meant Mr G was confused about what part of his complaint the payment was for. While CICA could have offered the payment earlier in the complaint process and explained the reason for it more clearly to Mr G, it had ultimately offered a reasonable remedy for the delay.