When Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells' families apply to the Criminal Injury Compensation Scheme they will each be eligible for an award of only £11,000, despite the fact that the scheme can award up to a maximum of £500,000. Victim's Crime Trust says that it is not okay for families who have endured such trauma, as the loss of a child to be offered such a "pittance".

Clive Elliot, the victims' group operations director, told the BBC, "The families should be given probably 100 times as much because, let's face it, they have to live with this tragedy for the entirety of their lives".

The two girls, from Soham Cambridgeshire, were both 10 at the time of their abduction in August of 2002.They were later found murdered and a man employed as the school's caretaker, Ian Huntley, was arrested and charged for their murders. He was sentenced to two life sentences and will serve at least 40 years in prison, which effectively meant that he had "little or no hope of release". His girlfriend, Maxine Carr, 26,was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison for conspiracy and perverting the cause of justice.

Champions of the CICA Scheme say that the £11,000 given to families whose loved ones have been murdered or died as a result of crime is not supposed to be seen by people as the value that the government puts on that person's life. Instead, government says that the money is a token of sympathy to the family. The high-end awards of £500,000 are for people severely handicapped after being a victim of crime and who will need lifelong care. The scheme is based on a tariff structure with 23 different levels of injuries corresponding to different levels of compensation. There are some added dispensations for additional costs to victims such as loss of earnings that CICA has discretionary powers to award. It has strict guidelines decided by Parliament, which the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, the ones running the scheme, must follow. The Home Office pays out £200 million to thousands of victims of crime annually.