Victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal have mentioned the compensation course of is “cruel”, “never-ending” and designed to make them need to hand over.
Former sub-postmasters advised the BBC they’re nonetheless ready for remaining settlements to be agreed, years after a whole bunch of victims have been accused of stealing cash that discovered to be the fault of an accounting system.
A report from an official inquiry into the scandal mentioned it had had a “disastrous” affect on these wrongly accused and prosecuted for felony offences.
Maria Lockwood, who ran a Post Office in Huddersfield, mentioned compensation for victims might have been settled “a long time ago”, however as a substitute it’s a “cruel, cruel” course of.
Appearing on BBC Breakfast to debate the report, 10 former sub-postmasters and postmistresses all agreed that the compensation schemes really feel designed to make them hand over.
Tracy Felstead, who went to jail when she was 19 years previous, mentioned her declare has been in since February.
However, she mentioned all she has had since then is increasingly more questions together with a 3rd request 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 mentioned.
Former decide Sir Wyn Williams has been chairing a long-running inquiry into the Horizon scandal, and on Tuesday launched a report trying on the affect on victims, in addition to the equity and velocity of the compensation course of.
Sir Wyn criticised the “formidable difficulties” across the supply of monetary redress for victims, which is at present organised round three totally different schemes.
He advisable:
- A mechanism to ship redress “to persons who have been wronged by public bodies” needs to be established
- Free authorized recommendation needs to be prolonged to claimants on one of many schemes – the Horizon Shortfall Scheme.
- Close members of the family of people that have “been most adversely affected by Horizon” needs to be compensated
Sir Wyn estimates that there are at present 10,000 eligible claimants in three compensation schemes, and that quantity is more likely to rise by not less than a whole bunch, if no more.
Scott Darlington, who was sub-postmaster of Alderley Edge Post Office, was uncertain that the federal 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.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crk6r2615vzo