The government's Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority is currently under heavy fire for its policies on compensation to victims of crime. There is a sizable difference and thus glaring discrepancy, in those receiving a compensation payout from the CICA and those who take their case to civil court.

One young child was left paralysed on his right side, is blind in one eye, and has impaired speech and remains illiterate even though he is now a seven-year-old. The disabilities he has stem from an attack by his mother's former boyfriend when the child was only six months old.

The boyfriend who sat with the boy for only an hour received just 21 months in prison. The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority awarded £500,000, which is the maximum payout, but the boy's mother contends that this will not be enough for a lifetime of medical care and expenses.

The CICA became highly criticised after it offered only £11,000 to July 7 victims and their families. There are conflicting feelings towards the CICA, some believe that these are not meant to be anything more than token gestures of public sympathy, while others, including legal experts know that the costs to victims will continue to be high for special care and wonder how these individuals will cope when their compensation payout monies are gone.

Presently the Home Office, headquarters for the CICA, disperses more than £200 million annually to victims of crime. Basic payments within the strict tariff set by Parliament for the CICA include £11,000 for bereaved individuals and families; £1,000 to £250,000 for pain and suffering of non-life threatening injuries, up to £1,000 for shock and a cap of £27,000 for serious and permanently disabling trauma. The CICA contends that is up to Parliament to revisit and/or revise those caps and that it is still the most generous government crime compensation agency in the world.

Ministers of the CICA contend that it disperses the highest compensation payouts in the world even though it does not reach the levels it had prior to the 1996 overhaul. The CICA is notoriously slow in processing compensation claims even in the face of emergency situations for victims. A CICA chief executive denied the claim of long delays and stated that the CICA makes interim payments to those involved in complex cases that demand a year or more in court.