The Post Office scandal - compensation
There’s a lot of noise and spin from Parliament. I thought I’d relay some points below about compensation to impacted postmasters which hopefully may be helpful and show that the scandal continues. There are 3 compensation schemes: i) one for participants in the Bates litigation; ii) one for those who have had their convictions quashed; and iii) one for those who weren't convicted or part of the Bates litigation but put their own money in the post office when Horizon incorrectly said there was a shortfall.- there are two parties who caused or helped facilitate this scandal - the Post Office and the government - but they are controlling the compensation schemes instead of an independent party which is madness.- in order to claim, postmasters are required to complete forms which are not easy to complete.- the Post Office stated to postmasters that the compensation offers were “without prejudice” and so meant they couldn’t discuss it with anyone apart from lawyers. This is legally wrong.- the form is rigged so postmasters claim less than they are entitled to because of complex legal principles around consequential loss and how the Post Office has worded the form.- if postmasters were bankrupted by the post office, then paying compensation to them may be pointless if creditors nab a chunk of that compensation.- remarkably the Post Office did not account for tax in compensation payments in one of the schemes but eventually the government acted albeit very slowly and it’s unclear what the tax position is in the other schemes.- the government gives the spin of 64% of claimants have received their settlement but that figure is obtained by lumping all the schemes together. Those in the Bates litigation scheme, who bore the brunt of the costs, are only at a 5% settlement figure and are constantly stonewalled by the Post Office and the government.
Milan Joshi ● 408d1 Comments