CONTAMINATED blood victims expressed confusion and anger after the government announced changes to a multibillion-pound compensation plan today.

Paymaster General and Cabinet Office Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said survivors of the biggest treatment disaster in NHS history will get life-long support with up to £15,000 extra for those subjected to “unethical” research.

Payouts under the scheme will start by the end of the year for survivors and by next year for affected people such as family members under a second set of regulations.

Mr Thomas-Symonds said the total estimate of the cost of scandal compensation will be set out in the Budget red book, with more than £1 billion had already been paid out.

“We know no amount of compensation can fully address the damage to people who suffered as a result of this scandal,” he said.

The £15,000 payout was, however, branded as “derisory and insulting” and a “kick in the teeth” by a victim who was infected with HIV and other viruses while subjected to unethical medical testing at a specialist school.

Pupils undergoing treatment for haemophilia at Lord Mayor’s Treloar’s College were experimented on without their knowledge by NHS clinicians who knew the dangers it posed.

Richard Warwick said he and other survivors of the trials are considering taking legal advice on whether to seek a review as he did not know “where they’ve plucked the figure from” and that it failed to reflect the gravity of a case that was “perhaps a breach of the Nuremberg [code]” — a set of ethical research principles for human experimentation.

He said he was told not to have children because of the risk of transmission.

Gary Webster, who left Treloar’s aged 18 with HIV and hepatitis after being tested on for years, said the £15,000 figure was “an insult” and suggested survivors would ask for answers on how that sum was determined.

Jason Evans, who set up the non-profit organisation Factor 8 after his father Jonathan died after contracting Hepatitis C and HIV from a blood product when he was four years old, said: “I think overall it’s a welcome step … I think the documentation that’s been provided by the government has caused some confusion.

“There’s a lot of it, some of it’s very detailed, and there’s not one document which places all of the information in a single place where people can look at it and say, ‘this is how much I might get’.”

The announcement received a mixed reaction from charities and campaigning lawyers.

Rachel Halford, CEO of the Hepatitis C Trust, expressed disappointment that the existing support schemes have not been opened more widely, adding: “The government must work transparently and openly with the infected blood community and explain its reasoning for likely compensation levels and the basis for these figures.”

Des Collins, senior partner of Collins Solicitors, who has advised more than 1,000 victims and families involved in the scandal, said: “It is somewhat surprising that those affected will need to wait longer than those infected to make an application but at least there is a guide on timescale.”

Leigh Day, which represents more than 300 people affected by the scandal, said it “cautiously” welcomed the announcement but criticised the failure to refer to “the continued disparity in the proposals for funds awarded to those infected with mono-HIV versus mono-HCV infection.”

Infected people, both living and dead, will start receiving payments through the new framework by the end of this year, while for others affected by the scandal, payments will begin in 2025, the Cabinet Office said.

It comes after senior barrister and interim chairman of the compensation authority Sir Robert Francis KC made 74 proposals to address concerns with the current compensation plans.

These included an enhanced award for those involved in a “particularly egregious” case of unethical testing at the Treloar school and an increase in the “social impact” payment for some of those affected.

The government will also raise the social impact payment recognising the consequences of stigma surrounding the disaster for people who are likely to have lived in the same household as the infected person for more than two years.