Bomb survivor ‘re-traumatised’ by fight for Troubles pension

A MAN whose wife was killed in the Omagh bomb has claimed he has been ‘re-traumatised’ by a two-year struggle to secure a Troubles pension.

Kevin Skelton applied for the Troubles Permanent Disablement Payment Scheme (TPDPS) when it launched in August 31, 2021, hoping to receive some compensation for the trauma inflicted by the 1998 Real IRA atrocity.

Mr Skelton’s wife, Philomena, was one of 31 people, including unborn twins, who were killed when a massive car bomb devastated Market Street in Omagh.

The ‘Troubles Permanent Disablement Payment Scheme’ (TPDPS) is open to people who were permanently physically or psychologically disabled as a result of an injury related to the Troubles between January 1, 1966 and April 12, 2010.

At nearly 70 years of age, Mr Skelton thought that the application for the Troubles pension scheme would be relatively straightforward. But, instead, he initially had to fill out a lengthy form application, and was later subjected to three hours of questioning, which he described as ‘traumatising’.

Mr Skelton said, “When the scheme was announced two years ago, I filled in the form with Families Moving On, and it was supposed to be a simple decision. But it has been dragging on for an awfully long time, and I wonder if we’ll ever see the end.”

‘fed up’

Under the impression that the process would be straightforward for the victims, he said, “At the start, we were led to believe that it was handy and speedy. But in April of this year, I got a telephone call from an assessor for the scheme, and he questioned me for three hours about information I had already given on the form.

“That was the straw that broke the camel’s back, because at that point I was fed up.”

Mr Skelton further claimed that one of his daughters had a two-and-a-half hour long interview, and then had to go for a face-to-face interview.

He continued, “Another of my daughters had a three-hour interview and had to take the day off work after because of how intense it was.

“The whole process has been soul-destroying. You just feel like banging your head off a wall.”

A deeply-frustrated Mr Skelton is still waiting for a decision to be made to determine if he is eligible for the pension or not.

“Everyone I’ve spoken to who applied has now said that they wouldn’t have bothered. I regret telling people about the scheme, because nobody I’ve spoken to is happy with how the process has been handled. We have all been traumatised enough, and now we’re getting traumatised again.”

In response to Mr Skelton’s comments, a spokesperson for Capita, the company appointed to carry out the medical assessment process to determine the level of permanent disablement as a result of a Troubles-related injury, said they try to ‘minimise’ the potential to harm the victims.

“Capita provides healthcare professionals to assess the degree of permanent disablement on behalf of the Victims’ Payments Board. All of the assessors have had specialist trauma training, and we follow a victim-centric approach that has been designed to minimise the potential for re-traumatisation.”