At the National Television Awards, Jo Hamilton, a sub-postmaster involved in the Post Office IT scandal, criticised the government over the compensation scheme for those wrongly accused. Alongside other members of the group of real sub-postmasters, she joined the cast of Mr Bates vs the Post Office on stage to accept three awards. Hamilton expressed disappointment in the government for their lack of progress on payouts since Labour came to power. She stated that she saw the new minister a couple of weeks back and confirmed that nothing has changed. In response to her statements, ministers stated that they were tirelessly working on the compensation schemes for those affected.
Hamilton highlights that over 300 of the 555 former sub-postmasters who won a landmark civil case against the Post Office in 2019 have yet to receive full compensation, including campaign leader Sir Alan Bates. The compensation scheme referred to by Hamilton was launched by the previous Conservative government and offers a fixed payment of £75,000, although many victims have pushed for more. As of 30 August, £87m had been paid under the scheme, including interim payments. Labour recently announced a new scheme that has a target of making an offer to 90% of sub-postmasters who have submitted a claim within 40 days.
Whilst Toby Jones collected the National Television Award for best drama performance for his portrayal of Sir Alan, he also expressed the need for the government to make a commitment to pay compensation before the end of the year. After the ITV drama led to a public outcry of the mistreatment of hundreds of falsely accused Post Office workers, 253 compensation offers have been made to the 555-strong group, of which 207 have been accepted. According to government figures, more than £289m has been paid to more than 2800 people across four compensation schemes that are in place.
The government has launched a new independent appeals process for those who were not convicted but handed over their own money to make up shortfalls caused by the Horizon system. Hamilton recently met with Post Office Minister Gareth Thomas, whilst a Department of Business and Trade spokesman stated that the government recognises the immeasurable suffering of postmasters and that they have waited too long to receive redress, but they are working across government to provide full, fair and swift redress
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