Publish Workplace, London. Credit score: Alex Yeung, Shutterstock
At the least £600,000 (€710,000) in compensation owed to victims of the UK’s Publish Workplace Horizon scandal stays unclaimed – but officers have admitted they’re not chasing it up, fearing they may “harass” the wrongly convicted.
A brand new report has slammed the federal government’s dealing with of the payouts, calling progress too gradual and missing urgency.
MPs slam delays in Horizon compensation payouts
The Home of Commons public accounts committee (PAC) has criticised the UK authorities for taking “inadequate motion” in figuring out all eligible submit workplace operators entitled to say from the £1.7 billion (€1.9 billion) being made accessible by 4 compensation schemes.
The Publish Workplace scandal, one of many worst miscarriages of justice in British historical past, noticed a whole bunch of sub-postmasters falsely prosecuted for monetary shortfalls brought on by the defective Horizon IT system. In 2023, the Division for Enterprise and Commerce (DBT) launched a scheme to compensate 800 individuals whose convictions had been quashed.
However almost a yr later, solely 42 per cent of these eligible have accepted the fastened £600,000 supply, and a 3rd haven’t even utilized.
When requested by MPs why officers weren’t chasing up claims, the DBT admitted it had solely despatched one letter to every particular person and didn’t need to stress them with reminders.
‘The federal government mentioned that it was “involved that people receiving letters would really feel harassed if that they had a collection of letters asking the identical factor,”’ The Guardian studies.
The PAC additionally took intention on the Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS), run straight by the Publish Workplace. Whereas over 18,500 letters have been despatched to individuals who misplaced cash due to the system (however weren’t convicted), solely 21 per cent responded.
The Publish Workplace admitted it hasn’t adopted up with those that didn’t reply, however plans to ship one other 5,000 letters this yr.
“It’s deeply dissatisfactory to search out these schemes nonetheless shifting far too slowly, with no authorities plans to trace down nearly all of potential claimants,” mentioned Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the chair of the PAC. “It’s completely unacceptable that these affected… are being compelled to relitigate their instances a second time.”
MPs additionally questioned the monetary backing of the Publish Workplace, which is completely government-owned and at the moment working at a loss. It posted a £612 million (€718 million) pre-tax loss final yr and is about to shut 115 branches, risking 2,000 jobs.
A Publish Workplace spokesperson mentioned, “Greater than £1bn has been paid to victims of the Horizon IT scandal… Nonetheless, extra work stays to be achieved so that every one victims obtain full redress as shortly as attainable and that is an absolute precedence.”
However with delays, unclaimed funds, and key campaigners like Sir Alan Bates reportedly supplied lower than half of their unique compensation requests, many are left asking: is that this actually justice, or simply one other cover-up in gradual movement?
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