The family of one of the Disappeared has rejected as a "slap in the face" a British government compensation payment offer of £10,000 sterling.
Ms Helen McKendry, whose mother Jean McConville was abducted and killed by the IRA in 1972, said the offer was an "insult" to her mother's memory.
"Is a life worth so little in Northern Ireland? You'd get more for tripping and falling in the street. I told them to keep their money, I wouldn't lower myself to take it," Ms McKendry added.
Ms McConville, a mother of 10, was one of about 12 people who disappeared in the 1970s. Her body still has not been located despite two massive digging operations in Co Louth.
An Ulster Unionist MP, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, said the offer was evidence of the British government's "total insensitivity" towards victims. "It's an insult that once again highlights the total insensitivity of the Northern Ireland Office to the families of the victims of terrorist violence. What Helen McKendry and her family want more than money is to recover her mother's remains and give her a Christian burial." He called on the British government to exert pressure on the republican movement to "find the remains rather than insulting the families with derisory sums".
In a statement, the Northern Ireland Office defended itself against accusations of insensitivity, saying the payment was "not in any way meant to compensate for the loss of a loved one". "Rather it is an acknowledgement of the added suffering caused by the inability of the families to lay their loved ones to rest."
The statement said the amount of up to £10,000 had been suggested in a report by the Review of Criminal Injuries Compensation as an appropriate amount to be paid to the relatives of anyone who had disappeared and was likely to have been killed by para militaries. It was trying to help victims in a number of ways and had spent over £6.25 million to date, the NIO added.
Meanwhile, MLAs have expressed concern that the funding of victims' services might come out of the Northern Ireland Executive's grant allocation rather than British Treasury funds.
After meeting victims' unit officials Ulster Unionist MLA Mr Fred Cobain said he was worried the needs of victims might have to compete with cancer patients' services, education, housing and transport. "People are going to be in trauma for decades as a result of the Troubles and we need to ensure that if they are going to get the support they need, they also get the maximum resources."