What is CICA?

CICA stands for Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, it is a government organisation which pays compensation to people who have been injured mentally or physically in an incident where they were a blameless victim of a violent crime. The organisation carries out its role in England, Scotland and Wales. As this is a government organisation, CICA is part of the Ministry of Justice. The headquarters for the organisation is located within Glasgow, Scotland and there are over 450 employees. CICA offers a free service to victims of violent crimes and therefore the service is recommended by many. Obviously CICA is aware that the financial compensation provided to victims can never fully compensate the individual of a traumatic event. The financial support is provided to help victims rebuild their lives and hopefully helps them to move on from the event. CICA aims to provide a fast and also efficient service to anybody who uses their services, all employees are well aware of the delicate situations which may need to be discussed. Anybody who is considering CICA can be rest assured that all cases are treat with the strictest confidentiality. In order to use the services of CICA, individuals will first be required to check whether they are eligible. A person will eligible if they have been injured seriously enough to be rewarded the lowest compensation award of 1,000. Also a person can apply if they were injured in an act of violence in England, Scotland or Wales. The person who injured someone does not necessarily have to have been convicted or even charged with the crime, CICA are concerned with the victim. A claim must be made within two years of the incident occurring. In some cases applications will accepted outside of the two years if it can be demonstrated that an individual was not able to place an application due to mitigating reasons. In some cases individuals will not be able to make an application for compensation. These situations include if an individual was injured before 1 August 1964. If compensation has already been paid for the same injury under the 2008 compensation scheme or any other scheme, an application will not be accepted. Applications will also not be accepted if the injury happened before 1st October 1979 and the victim and the person who inured the victim were living together at the time as members of the same family in the same household. If an injury was caused outside of England, Scotland or Wales applications will not be accepted. Rewards may also be refused by CICA in some cases, including if the behavior of the victim is judged unacceptable, whether this be before, during or after the incident in which the injury occurred. Other factors which may stop a reward include a criminal record, failure to co-operate with police or CICA and the delaying in informing to the police, other organisation or person of the incident.