This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
HORIZON scandal victims will not receive compensation by the March 2025 deadline called for by campaigner Sir Alan Bates, the minister responsible for postal services admitted today.
Gareth Thomas insisted there would be “substantial progress” towards clearing the backlog of compensation claims by next summer.
Mr Bates said last week that “if we need to fundraise for a court case, we will,” if the compensation process was not completed more quickly.
More than 900 subpostmasters were wrongly prosecuted after the faulty Horizon IT accounting system made it look like money was missing from branch accounts.
The inquiry into the scandal heard this week that the compensation strategy had previously been focused on saving taxpayers’ money, as opposed to the supposed goal of “full and fair” compensation for those affected.
Mr Bates said the Department for Business and Trade appeared to be trying to get away with paying out as little as possible to victims, while maximising the income for the legal firms involved.
