Alimony for infected blood victims must increase

Victims of the NHS's tainted blood scandal have written to the Health Secretary demanding an immediate increase in the amount of child support, the BBC has learned.

The public inquiry into the scandal should not be about financial aid until 2020.

Campaign group Tainted Blood said that at the current rate, 112 more people would die before the problem is solved.

The Cabinet Office said it would "consider" calls for more support.

A public inquiry was opened last month to determine how blood products infected with the hepatitis virus and HIV had been administered to thousands of people in the 1970s and 80s.

It is thought that more than 2,400 people died, while many others remained in very poor health.

Last week, Sir Brian Langstaff, Chair of the Inquiry Commission, wrote to the Cabinet Office to explain to some families how they had "lost everything" and "had to live on the edge".

He asked the government to take "decisive action" to tackle the problem of financial compensation.

The Cabinet Office stated that it would "review" the recommendations and "respond as soon as possible".

"Disparity" in the United Kingdom

Tainted Blood, the largest support group for victims, has written to Health Secretary Matt Hancock to ask the government to remedy what he says is an "unacceptable delay" in dealing with finances.

In the letter, which is being examined by the Victoria Derbyshire program, the Parliament demands that support payments in England, Wales and Northern Ireland be increased to the same level as the Scottish victims of the scandal.

"I think the shame of this government will be profound and future if its government does not act and act quickly," said Andrew Evans, chairman of the group.

At present, a number of complex financial aid programs are in effect in the United Kingdom.

Payments can range from less than £ 5,000 a year to over £ 36,000.

In most cases, the Scottish victims of the scandal and their families receive more than the victims living in Wales, those in Northern Ireland and England receiving the least.

The campaign group is also demanding that payments be backdated and that all widows' payments be made, whether the victim remarries or has already had a civil partnership.

What is the scandal about tainted blood?

It is estimated that about 5,000 people with hemophilia and other bleeding disorders were infected with the hepatitis virus in the 1970s and 1980s.

It is thought that more than 1,250 people were also infected with HIV.

Nearly 3000 of them have since died.

They were given a treatment – factor VIII or IV – used to help their blood clot.

But Britain was struggling to cope with the demand for treatment and so supplies were imported from the United States.

Much of the human blood plasma used to make the product came from donors such as prisoners, who sold their blood.

Other victims who received blood transfusions after surgery were also exposed to tainted blood – up to 30,000 people may have been infected.

In the mid-1980s, blood products began to undergo heat treatment to eliminate viruses.

But it remains to be seen how much was known before and why some contaminated products remained in circulation.

Screening for blood products began in 1991 and by the late 1990s, synthetic treatments for hemophilia became available, thus eliminating the risk of infection.

Watch the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire program on weekdays between 9:00 am and 11:00 am (Paris time) on BBC Two and BBC News in the UK. and on iPlayer then.