AN URGENT fundraiser appeal has been launched for a Windrush descendant facing council tax debt after her partner died in a care home soon after the start of the pandemic. 

Yvonne Williams, whose mother came to Britain in 1962 with Ms Williams’s siblings, is facing a court hearing on March 29 after racking up council tax debt following the death of her Windrush-generation partner of 16 years.

The 62-year-old, who has multiple health difficulties, is extremely vulnerable to Covid-19 and was self-isolating for her own safety. 

Without her partner and with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) due to her immigration status, she has been unable to pay rent and council tax. 

Ms Williams’s daughter was made redundant from her cleaning job, which has meant she is struggling to support her mum. 

As a result, a council tax debt of £1,026.28 has accrued.

Ms Williams is one of many Windrush descendants who has still not received the recognition and support they need from the government even after the scandal began to surface in 2017. 

She is excluded from the Windrush Scheme to regularise her stay because she joined her whole family in Britain after 1973.

Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (Barac) co-founder Zita Holbourne said it must be “living hell” for Ms Williams and must feel like a punishment for doing “absolutely nothing to deserve this inhumane treatment and injustice.”

She said: “This is a scandal not of the past but of the present, and this injustice and racism must be urgently addressed by the government. 

“They cannot just apologise and move on, as the people whose lives are being destroyed by their actions cannot move on: they can barely survive from one day to the next.”

Ms Holbourne said that they were still waiting for the Windrush Lessons Learned inquiry recommendations to be implemented, adding: “How can the government expect to learn lessons when they continue to make errors which have real and lasting horrific impacts on people’s lives.”

Barac has redirected some of its humanitarian aid funds, which the group usually uses to support refugees, to families with NRPF during Covid-19. It can be supported here: mstar.link/3qSeQJg.

Donations for Ms Williams’s case can be made here: mstar.link/3tqdsiD.