Home » UK Business News » Post Office Workers To Get £600,000 Compensation After Horizon IT Scandal

Post Office Workers To Get £600,000 Compensation After Horizon IT Scandal

By Hugh Fort in UK Business News, posted September 19, 2023

The UK government has declared that each Post Office operator wrongfully convicted due to the Horizon IT debacle will be granted a compensation of £600,000.

The scandal saw 700 Post Office operators wrongly prosecuted between 1999 to 2015.

These prosecutions were based on theft, fraud, and false accounting charges stemming from flawed accounting software introduced in the late 1990s.

So far, 86 postmasters have had their convictions reversed, with £21 million already disbursed as compensation.

Kevin Hollinrake, the business department minister with responsibility for the Post Office, said: This is about righting a wrong and providing some form of relief to those wrongfully caught up in this scandal."

This new compensation is supplementary to all reasonable legal fees.

Those who have previously received compensation or settled for an amount less than the newly announced £600,000 will be compensated for the difference.

The faulty IT system, provided by Fujitsu and implemented by the Post Office, caused discrepancies in the returns filed by postal operators, leading to legal actions against them.

Staff were jailed and took their own lives

The repercussions of this scandal were severe, with some individuals serving jail time and others taking their own lives.

An ongoing inquiry into the matter, led by retired high court judge Sir Wyn Williams, is expected to conclude next year.

In 2021, the government had initially announced interim compensations of £100,000, which was subsequently increased to £163,000.

Hollinrake said while the government's decision to raise the compensation to £600,000 is generous, it cannot truly compensate for the profound impact the scandal has had on many people's lives.

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Three distinct compensation schemes have been established in light of the scandal, with over £120 million paid out to 2,600 affected individuals.

As the Post Office's owner, the government bears the responsibility for these compensation payments.

Nick Read, the Post Office's CEO, recently returned a £54,400 bonus linked to the Horizon inquiry and apologized for the Post Office's oversight and governance errors.

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