More than 7,000 people have received over £1 billion as part of the government’s commitment to compensate victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal. While the government claims this £1 billion milestone shows “progress,” many continue to struggle. Hundreds are still waiting for fair compensation, over 25 years after their lives were upended by a faulty computer system that led to wrongful accusations of accounting shortfalls.
Alan Bates, the former subpostmaster who led the charge for justice, raises an important question: “Why are so many people still waiting to have their claims resolved?” He himself hasn’t accepted the offer on the table, which doesn’t even cover half of his claim prepared by experts. He also questions how much money has gone to lawyers from the government for these compensation schemes.
The latest figures cover various compensation pots: the Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS), the overturned convictions scheme, the group litigation order (GLO) scheme, and the Horizon convictions redress scheme. Post Office minister Gareth Thomas emphasized their priority to speed up compensation and stated, “We are settling cases every day, but the job isn’t done until every postmaster receives fair and just redress.”
So far, 316 out of 488 claimants in the GLO scheme have received £167 million in final financial redress. This scheme targets members of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, founded by Bates and others in 2009. This group took the Post Office to the High Court over Horizon and won, proving the system’s faults caused the financial issues they were wrongly held accountable for.
Over half of the £1.039 billion paid out has gone to 6,337 claimants in the HSS, totaling £559 million in final settlements. The Horizon convictions redress scheme has disbursed £245 million to 463 claimants whose wrongful convictions were overturned, with 382 receiving full settlements. Last May, following an ITV dramatization of the scandal, Parliament passed a law that exonerated many subpostmasters.
Another £68 million has gone to those whose convictions were quashed in courts, with 71 claimants receiving full settlements. The Department for Business and Trade stated that ministers are continually reviewing each scheme to make the process smoother, welcoming feedback from postmasters and campaigners.
The situation also affects former users of a system that predates Horizon, known as Capture. These users faced mysterious losses, and some were even convicted of financial crimes. The government is currently formulating a scheme to compensate them after acknowledging faults in the software.
The Post Office scandal first came to light when Computer Weekly covered the stories of seven subpostmasters in 2009, detailing the harm caused by the flawed accounting system.
