Post Office Horizon financial redress data: December 2023
Updated 5 March 2024
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/post-office-horizon-compensation-data-for-2023/post-office-horizon-compensation-data-december-2023
The government is determined that postmasters affected by the Horizon IT scandal receive the financial redress that they deserve.
As of 1 December 2023, approximately £138 million has been paid to over 2,700 claimants across 3 schemes:
-
Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS): £87 million
-
Group Litigation Order (GLO) Scheme: £27 million total value of all payments including interim payments
-
Overturned Convictions (OC): 93 convictions have been overturned: £24 million total value of all payments including further interim payments
1. Claim data by scheme
| Scheme | Claims received | Offer made | Claims paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| OC initial interim payments | 87 [+1] |
83 [-] |
83 [+1] |
| OC pecuniary | 22 [-] |
10 [-] |
5 [-] |
| OC non-pecuniary | 76 [-] |
76 [-] |
60 [-] |
| GLO initial interim payment | Not applicable |
Not applicable |
475 [+1] |
| GLO full and final | 48 [+12] |
26 [+16] |
Withheld |
| HSS eligible claims before deadline | 2,417 [-] |
2,417 [+2] |
2,034 [+5] |
| HSS eligible late claims | 291 [+9] |
224 [+18] |
128 [+11] |
Information correct as of 1 December 2023.
Changes from 2 November 2023 in square brackets.
[-] indicates no change since last month.
2. Notes for table
In the above table:
- spend is rounded to nearest £1 million
- some data are withheld by Department for Business and Trade (DBT) for claimant privacy purposes
- data regarding the HSS and OC are sourced from Post Office Ltd which retains full responsibility for the data published on its website
2.1 Overturned Convictions (OC)
Initial interim payments are available to eligible postmasters upon getting their conviction overturned on the grounds that it was reliant on Horizon evidence
Non-pecuniary damages are personal damages, such as mental distress and loss of liberty. Pecuniary damages are financial damages, such as loss of earnings. A ‘full’ settlement comprises both elements of claim. The Post Office has been progressing non-pecuniary settlements first to get money to postmasters as quickly as possible.
For the purposes of this data publication, the numbers of claims received, offers made and claims settled do not necessarily correspond to the number of individuals who have received monies. A person may have received an interim payment, a non-pecuniary settlement and a pecuniary settlement, each of which would be counted as ‘one’ claim, offer and settlement.
The data breakdown sets out volumes of initial interim payments and full claims (split into pecuniary and non-pecuniary); the figure presented as the total sum of financial redress paid out, however, also includes partial settlements or further interim payments, which are not included as volumes in the data breakdown.
2.2 Group Litigation Order (GLO) Scheme
There are 63 postmasters – out of the 555 who were members of the GLO – who had convictions and are therefore eligible to apply for redress once their conviction has been overturned.
The remaining 492 postmasters are currently eligible for the GLO scheme, of whom 484 qualify for interim payments.
475 of the 484 have received their share of the £19.5 million interim payment announced in June 2022.
Work continues on the remaining payments in complex categories such as those recently deceased and people who have not taken up the offer of an interim payment.
2.3 Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS)
Post Office received 2,417 eligible claims by March 2021.
The closure date for applications was 27 November 2020, but Post Office continued to accept applications for the original deadline group up to March 2021.
In October 2022, the government announced that additional funding would be provided so that eligible late claimants could receive financial redress, and the scheme reopened for applications.
Post Office has received 291 eligible late claims to date.
Interim payments on the HSS are available before and after claimants receive an offer of redress.
The £87 million paid out on the HSS includes £17.2 million in interim payments to original claimants and £1.6 million in interim payments to late applications.
3. Post Office data
This data is part of DBT’s Post Office Horizon financial redress data collection.
Post Office also publish updates on Overturned Convictions and financial redress, and the Horizon Shortfall Scheme on their website.