Horizon scandal victim offered compensation after death

A widow whose husband was caught up in the Post Office Horizon scandal is calling for compensation payments for victims to be sped up after she received her husband’s offer of redress days after he passed away.

Terry Walters, 76, died in February after years of ill health. He was one of the former sub-postmasters who took the Post Office to court in the landmark case led by Sir Alan Bates, which helped expose the scandal.

Despite submitting a claim for full financial redress more than a year ago, he died without receiving all the money he was owed.

The government says it has doubled the amount of payments made to former sub-postmasters.

Days after losing Terry, his widow Janet received a letter making an offer of compensation – far below the amount the couple had claimed.

She describes the offer as a “slap in the face” and says it has prompted her to share their story publicly for the first time.

“Enough is enough,” she said.

Terry used his redundancy money to take over the Hockley Post Office in Stockport in 2005.

But less than two years later, he was suspended for alleged shortfalls.

He was never allowed back behind his counter again and his contract was terminated the following year for thousands of pounds of losses that didn’t exist.

He and Janet had to sell their home and have been living in rented accommodation ever since.

“To have a big institution such as the Post Office come along and accuse you of doing something – it was devastating,” says Janet, “and humiliating.”

Now, ahead of Terry’s funeral, Janet has decided to share their story – and is urging the government to ensure quick payment to others who are still waiting for compensation.

“We’ve lived on promises all this time,” she adds. “Seventeen years out of somebody’s life is a long time.”

There are no official figures for how many victims have died before receiving full compensation but, according to The Times, the number had reached more than 250 by early 2024.

Terry had received an interim payment, which Janet says helped them manage as his health declined. But she insists that Terry would have been “over the moon” had he lived to receive his full compensation. She believes that receiving the money in the years before Terry’s health declined could have made a huge difference to their quality of life.

“We could have done the things we had wanted to do all these years, buy a proper home perhaps, treat ourselves to a nice holiday, go out and do things,” she said.

According to the most recent figures, in the scheme created to provide redress for those in the original Group Litigation Order (GLO), 227 of 492 eligible claimants are still waiting for full and final compensation.

The government says 407 offers have been made of the 425 people who have so far made full claims.

With so many others still waiting for their full compensation, Janet now says she is considering writing to King Charles.

“There must be someone in a high authority that can say, well, it’s time this was finished,” she says, “so people have a chance to move on with their lives.”

Janet says she will only scatter Terry’s ashes when his compensation is paid in full even though she knows the process will likely take many more months to settle.

A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said it had doubled redress payments under the current government and that it was making offers to 89% of GLO claimants within 40 days of receiving a full claim application.

Over half of eligible claimants have now settled their claim, the spokesperson added.

Approximately £698m has been paid to more than 4,400 claimants across four schemes.