The Post Office is pushing the government to give the benefit of the doubt to more than 1,000 former subpostmasters claiming compensation, where it hasn’t yet found evidence that Horizon errors caused shortfalls.
The claimants have applied for a £75,000 fixed payment under the Post Office’s Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS) – previously called the Historical Shortfall Scheme – which was set up to offer redress to victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal.
MPs on the Business and Trade Select Committee have previously called for claimants across all compensation schemes to be given the benefit of the doubt to speed up redress.
The HSS was established after the conclusion of a 2018/19 High Court group litigation order (GLO) that proved unexplained accounting shortfalls – for which subpostmasters were blamed and forced to repay – were caused by errors in the Horizon computer system used in branches. The scheme was designed for former subpostmasters who were not convicted of crimes but suffered losses from making payments to the Post Office to cover the shortfalls for which they were wrongly blamed.
The £75,000 fixed payment was originally introduced for members of the GLO, but was extended to HSS claimants in March last year.
Since ITV’s dramatisation of the Post Office scandal in January 2024, which widened understanding of the problems caused by Horizon, many more former subpostmasters have applied for compensation.
But a source told Computer Weekly that more than 1,000 claimants are in limbo because the Post Office cannot find evidence that Horizon errors caused losses, adding that the Post Office is pushing for these people to be given the benefit of the doubt.
The Post Office told Computer Weekly: “We are working closely and collaboratively with government regarding £75,000 HSS Fixed Sum Offer claims, where, after an initial investigation, we have been unable to determine eligible Horizon shortfalls at a branch.”
The government said it is aware of the issue and is working to resolve it. A spokesperson for the Department for Business and Trade said: “Each case is treated individually, and we are working to inform affected claimants on next steps as soon as possible.”
MPs on the Business and Trade Select Committee had previously recommended changes to compensation schemes to give claimants greater benefit of the doubt when applying for redress, but these were rejected.
Following the government’s rejection of this proposal, as well as other suggestions, committee chair Liam Byrne MP said: “The new government has made extremely important progress in accelerating redress payment to the victims of the biggest miscarriage of justice in British legal history. But too many are still waiting too long, and former subpostmasters are still dying before they receive justice. That is wrong.
“People who were, over years and years, disbelieved, bankrupt, criminalised, sent to prison, had their lives completely upended for wrongs that they did not commit, have experienced something akin to a second trial as they sought to clear their names and receive redress,” he said. “The government’s response to our recommendations is a start. But we respectfully ask ministers to listen harder to what the committee has recommended, reflect again on what we proposed and re-submit its response to the committee.”
Computer Weekly first exposed the scandal in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered due to Horizon accounting software, which led to the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history (see below timeline of Computer Weekly articles about the scandal since 2009).
