At an angry meeting at the Windrush Memorial Centre in Manchester at the end of January, around 30 people listened to Daniel Hobbs, the civil servant who heads the Windrush compensation scheme, apologising again for the Home Office’s mistake in wrongly classifying thousands of Commonwealth-born people who came to the UK as children in the 1950s and 1960s as illegal immigrants.

But most people here were already very familiar with the government’s repeated apologies and were impatient for more practical support. Individuals set out the problems they have encountered with the scheme. Many had found the process of filling in the form very complicated. Several said it was difficult to get the necessary information without access to smartphones or the internet. Some were worried about collecting the necessary evidence before the scheme closed.

In the days that followed, there were encouraging signs that officials were listening to these concerns. The Home Office announced a two-year extension to the programme and introduced changes to make it easier for people to apply. Martin Forde, the barrister who devised the scheme, has urged people to come forward and apply, stressing that it is now “easier to navigate … and will provide fair compensation to all those affected.”

But grassroots organisations helping people to fill in the 18-page form (which is accompanied by a 44-page guidance document) still hope that the government will grant funding so they can offer support with the process of providing documentary evidence showing how lives have been badly affected.

Anthony Brown, a law graduate who runs the Windrush Defenders Legal group in Manchester, and who has been affected by Windrush problems himself, said: “The Home Office are saying people are not taking up the compensation scheme, but it’s no surprise when you consider the difficulty of applying. We are run by volunteers, and it can take many meetings to help people gather the right documents.”

Another volunteer and law graduate, Leonie Brown, said the process was frequently distressing, as people attempted to set out the ways in which their lives had been damaged; meetings often had to be stopped because people became too upset to continue. “I’ve seen grown men cry. They’ve missed seeing their mother or father on their death beds. They talk about having to go to food banks and missing family holidays. People feel really humiliated,” she said.

The group has helped 12 people to submit compensation claims in the past six months, and expects to submit as many as 100 in total. So far no one they have assisted has received a payment.

Some of those still being helped by Manchester volunteers to complete their forms describe the complex process:

Hyacinth Naylor, 70, came to the UK from Jamaica when she was 10 in 1960, and worked as a secretary for decades. She was forced to retire early when she began to have difficulties with her employers because she couldn’t produce a British passport. In 2013, soon after retiring, she travelled on a Jamaican passport to Tobago to visit her sister. “I had a great holiday, but when it was time to go home, British Airways wouldn’t let me on the plane,” she said. She was stuck in Tobago for six months, trying to persuade officials that she was British and should be allowed to go home. No one believed her. Her children sent tenancy agreements, council tax bills, gas bills, payslips, birth certificates for her three children, bank statements to the Home Office, but she received a letter back saying: “I am still not satisfied that you hold indefinite leave to remain.” She was sent two refusal of entry clearance decisions by the Home Office. Her daughter sent a letter to David Cameron asking for assistance, but was referred back to the Home Office, which would not help. “I was six months out of my home. I suffered a lot while I was there – not knowing if I was ever going to be able to come back. It was hell.” She has begun to put together evidence for a compensation claim, but is finding it difficult to compile all the necessary documentation.

Donald Biggs after a Home Office briefing in Manchester for Windrush generation people still awaiting compensation. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Donald Biggs, 59, worked as a social worker for Manchester city council for 25 years. After leaving his job in 2014, he applied for a new one but prospective employers would not take him on because he had no British passport. He had arrived in Britain at the age of five from Jamaica in 1965. “They kept asking if I have the right to stay in this country, but I couldn’t prove it.” His partner who also works for the council took on a second job as a cleaner to pay the mounting bills, and they rented a room out to a student. “Donald couldn’t work and we had a mortgage to pay, so there was no choice,” she said. When Donald was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2016, he had to pay a £500 NHS immigration health surcharge in order to receive treatment. He applied for a British passport and citizenship but his applications were rejected. “I knew I was here legally but I was very frightened. I tried to stay under the radar. I daren’t go anywhere or do anything – I didn’t want to be stopped and told I was an illegal immigrant. A solicitor told me: Immigration could knock on your door any time and you could be taken into detention if you don’t get this sorted. It frightened the living daylights out of us. I’d paid taxes here for decades. The more I think about it the more it makes me angry.” He is in the process of applying for compensation. “I kept it from my children, I felt so ashamed. It’s hard to put a figure on that. I just want justice.”

Pauline Clear, 69, a social worker who specialises in mental health, almost died when she was prevented from returning to the UK after a holiday in Jamaica in 2004. Pauline arrived here in 1960 as an 11-year-old and has six children in the UK, all of whom are British. She thought the airport official was joking when he told her she couldn’t get on the flight; later she thought she would be able to sort out the problem in a day or so with a quick visit to the British high commission, but it was 18 months before she was allowed to return home, during which time she lost her job, and her 14-year-old daughter had faced eviction from the family home in Manchester. She had very little money to survive, and had to rent a cockroach-infested room with no windows; kind neighbours gave her food. Phoning her children was very expensive. Pauline was unable to get the correct medication for her diabetes in Jamaica, and was twice hospitalised; on the second occasion medical staff did not think she would live. “I came back in a wheelchair,” she says. Initially she just wanted an apology, but now she is planning to apply for compensation so she can pay her family back for everything they spent on trying to bring her home.

Herman Campbell, 53, did not seek help from anyone to fill in his form and believes this may be why he was offered just £250 in compensation. He arrived in the UK from Jamaica at the age of eight in 1975, and went to primary and secondary school in Britain. When he applied for a British passport in the 1990s, he was told the Home Office had no record of him. As a result of having no documentation he had problems securing housing; later he was refused re-entry into the UK in 2017 after a holiday in Turkey (travelling on his Jamaican passport). He was alarmed to be told by Turkish border officials that he could face deportation to Jamaica, a country he has not visited since he was a child. “I was properly distressed.” After a week his family were able to send documents proving that Britain had been his home for 42 years, and he was able to return to the UK. A letter from the compensation scheme notes: “We acknowledge the stress, frustration and worry you experienced during this period. Therefore ... you are eligible for an award of £250.” He described the payment offered as “offensive”, given his decades-long struggle to prove his status. He wonders if he should have sought help to demonstrate how seriously his life has been affected. “They said they are going to right the wrongs done to the Windrush people, but this is an insult,” he said. The letter describes this as a “final award” but the Home Office said that he could ask for a review of the sum allocated.