The newspapers including the Times and the sun newspaper ran articles detailing the NHS/DOH payments to the victims of the Savile scandal; -

The NHS has been left with a £1m bill for compensating victims of Jimmy Savile after the late sexual predator’s estate contributed just £53,000.

The DJ and television presenter raped and assaulted scores of patients, staff and visitors in 41 hospitals, a children’s home and a hospice over nearly 50 years. Victims included children as young as five, paralysed teenagers in wheelchairs and pregnant women. Savile died aged 84 in 2011 before his crimes were revealed, and was reported to have had an estate worth at least £4m.

Of the £1.1m NHS bill, much of which is legal fees rather than compensation, Savile’s estate paid £53,245, The Sunday Times can reveal. On average, 52 victims received just £9,615. 

However, an independent inquiry found that the number of victims could have been as high as 177.

Sexual abuse survivors’ groups branded the reimbursement from Savile’s estate “pretty appalling” and described the payouts as “utterly derisory” and “peanuts”.

Many of Savile’s victims needed significant amounts of money to pay for private therapy that the NHS was often unable to provide, experts said. Some will require specialist care for the rest of their lives.

Peter Saunders, founder of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said: “The real winners in these situations tend to be the lawyers, I’m afraid.”

About £600,000 of the £1.1m cost to the NHS went on legal fees, with the remaining £500,000 paid in damages to the 52, according to data released under freedom of information laws.

Saunders said it was “fundamentally wrong” that celebrities can get “a massive court settlement of damages” for being defamed, while Savile’s victims ended up with an average of under £10,000 each after being sexually assaulted.

NHS Resolution, the body that handles negligence claims against the health service, confirmed that it had not been fully refunded by the TV presenter’s estate. It said: “NHS Resolution was reimbursed £53,245.05 from Jimmy Savile’s estate.” Eight years after his death, the NHS is still dealing with a handful of “open cases”, it added.

The revelations raise fresh questions over precisely what happened to Savile’s wealth after he died.

The law firm Osborne Clarke received £1.2m for its work for NatWest bank, the estate’s executor. Osborne Clarke said the fees were related to the processing of genuine claims made against Savile’s estate as well as “other aspects of administration such as investigating a large number of false claims”.

Richard Scorer, head of the abuse team at the law firm Slater and Gordon, which represented some of Savile’s victims, said: “Ensuring that victims have proper access to therapy is a major issue — it’s a constant problem that victims come up against. So when victims seek compensation, a big reason for doing that is because they want to have therapy, and the only way they can do that is privately.”

The Department of Health said settlements for Savile’s victims were negotiated between lawyers for the defendants and victims, and then approved in the High Court.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nhs-pays-over-1m-for-jimmy-saviles-sex-abuse-jqjlvmg36

'DERISORY & PATHETIC' Jimmy Savile victims given LESS in compensation than the NHS spent in legal costs

SHOCK figures reveal that the 52 patients abused in hospitals by Jimmy Savile were handed less in compensation than the NHS paid out in legal fees

The 52 victims of the pervert DJ received £500,000 in total — an average of just £9,615 each. But the NHS paid £600,000 in legal costs, including £110,000 on defending claims.

The figures, revealed to The Sun on Sunday in a Freedom of Information request, shows for the first time how meagre the full compensation package was.

Peter Saunders, founder of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, described the payouts as “derisory”.

He said: “The amount is pathetic, especially when you consider the NHS has spent more on lawyers.

“Why couldn’t the NHS have avoided hundreds of thousands in legal costs by taking statements with the help of psychologists and agreeing reasonable payouts?

“The figures victims have received are derisory because it would cost a lot more to pay for the professional therapy they may need which is often not available on the NHS.”

Many of the victims got compensation lower than £9,000 as three of those abused by Savile were awarded £40,000 each.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8083278/patients-abused-jimmy-savile-compensation-nhs-paid/

These articles made it clear why the NHS/DOH had not wanted to cooperate with the ombudsman, in their opinion they had closed the can of worms called Jimmy Savile and did not under any circumstances wish to re-open it.

By ambushing victims in the Speaking Out interviews rather than listening to them, the NHS/DOH had reduced the number of ‘victims’ to 52 from a potential 177, a saving of £1.25Million at an average of £10,000 per victim.

More time passed and I chased up the ombudsman for an update, surprise, more complications had arisen with the DOH legal team, they were still withholding one document required by the ombudsman, however they were expecting this soon.

I then received an email. it was now determined that the ombudsman would require my entire file, this was agreed, and Liz Dux company released all documents in my case to the ombudsman.

More months passed, and eventually the ombudsman had reached a determination in my case. They wanted to set up a telephone call. More time passed and I chased up the ombudsman for an update, surprise, more complications had arisen with the DOH legal team, they were still withholding one document required by the ombudsman, however they were expecting this soon.

I then received an email. it was now determined that the ombudsman would require my entire file, this was agreed, and Liz Dux company released all documents in my case to the ombudsman.

More months passed, and eventually the ombudsman had reached a determination in my case. They wanted to set up a telephone call.