Victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal have urged the prime minister to “get his act together” and sort out compensation for sub-postmasters still fighting to be made whole.
Former sub-postmasters told the BBC they are waiting for final settlements to be agreed, years after hundreds of them were accused of stealing money, later discovered to be the fault of an accounting system.
A report from an official inquiry found that people who sought compensation had “formidable difficulties” and the entire scandal has had a “disastrous” impact on those wrongly accused.
Sally Stringer said the Keir Starmer must tell MPs to see sub-postmasters in their constituencies and “get it sorted out”.
Appearing on BBC Breakfast with fellow Post Office victims, Ms Stringer told Starmer: “We’re all getting old and decrepit and your time in office is dependent, frankly, on how you sort this one out.
“Get your act together,” she said.
Ms Stringer, who ran Beckford Post Office for 20 years, agreed with other former sub-postmasters that the compensation schemes feel designed to make them give up.
Maria Lockwood, who operated a Post Office in Huddersfield, said compensation for victims could have been settled “a long time ago”, but instead it is a “cruel, cruel” process.
Tracy Felstead, who went to prison when she was 19 years old, said she had now been asked three times for a medical report.
“How many more medical reports do you need to prove what’s happened? They know what’s happened to us,” she said.
Former judge Sir Wyn Williams has been chairing a long-running inquiry into the Horizon scandal, and on Tuesday released a report looking at the impact on victims, as well as the fairness and speed of the compensation process.
Sir Wyn criticised the “formidable difficulties” around the delivery of financial redress for victims, which is currently organised around three different schemes.
He recommended:
- A mechanism to deliver redress “to persons who have been wronged by public bodies” should be established
- Free legal advice should be extended to claimants on one of the schemes – the Horizon Shortfall Scheme.
- Close family members of people who have “been most adversely affected by Horizon” should be compensated
Sir Wyn estimates that there are currently 10,000 eligible claimants in three compensation schemes, and that number is likely to rise by at least hundreds, if not more.
Scott Darlington, who was sub-postmaster of Alderley Edge Post Office, was doubtful that the government will act on the report.
“Will they take any of the recommendations? They’re not obliged to, and their track record shows that they’ve tried to avoid things that they have to do.”
The first volume of the report, published after a long-running inquiry into the scandal, set out in full the devastating impact on people’s lives.
At least 59 people told the inquiry they had contemplated suicide at various points, of whom 10 attempted to take their own lives, some on more than one occasion.
Families of victims said at least 13 more people had killed themselves.
Many victims suffered psychiatric and psychological difficulties with some detailing how they had abused alcohol due to the stress of the situation, while a number said they couldn’t sleep at night without drinking first.
One postmistress said she “went to rehab for eight months as the Post Office had turned her to drink to cope with the losses”.
