Other key findings from the report include:  

• Compensation during the height of the Troubles was unequal and inadequate. Despite tens of millions given to victims, on average less than £7,000 was awarded, with 60 per cent of families receiving less than £5,000. 
• Women were routinely discriminated against and devalued.  
• There were vast discrepancies in payments to victims killed in the same incidents even in the same family, which diminished the loss next of kin felt and reinforced a hierarchy of victims. 
• The scheme failed to provide redress for suffering, awarding only loss of income or funeral costs. 
• Widow(er)s of those who died in the security forces were often poorly compensated. 
• Compensation was used in several killings by the security forces to settle with victims and avoid cases going before the European Court of Human Rights. 

Based on the findings, the researchers have proposed a bereaved payment scheme, to complement the current one for seriously injured victims of the Troubles through the Victims Payment Board.  

Speaking about the report findings and recommendations Professor Moffett said: “Compensation for those killed during the Troubles was not fit for purpose. It belittled the loss and suffering of many victims, rubbing salt into the wounds of grieving families. Many families were paid a pittance for the death of their loved. One mother received £112 after the murder of her two adult sons, a widower whose wife and mother of six was shot dead outside their home was awarded £84, and a father received £43 for his daughter killed in a bomb.  

“Women, children, elderly, and cohabitees were failed by a system that only created a financial hierarchy of victims. With the Legacy Bill becoming law last week, victims’ legal avenues to seek redress through the courts have now been terminated. Over fifty years on from the start of the Troubles we need a bereavement payment scheme to properly acknowledge and redress the suffering experienced by bereaved victims.”