Post Office data breach victims to get up to £5k in compensation
Post Office data breach victims to get up to £5k in compensation
The Post Office is set to compensate many former sub-postmasters after unintentionally revealing their names and addresses on its official website
Over 700 subpostmasters were wrongly convicted of fraud, theft and false accounting following shortfalls at their branches
(Image: Getty )
The Post Office is set to compensate hundreds of former sub-postmasters after their names and addresses were accidentally leaked last June. As reported by the BBC, the Post Office has said that every victim's compensation will be limited to £5,000, although there may be opportunities for higher claims.
This announcement comes nearly a year after a data breach exposed the personal information of 555 victims involved in the Horizon IT scandal on a public website. In a statement to the BBC, the Post Office mentioned that those affected would receive either £5,000 or £3,500, depending on whether their published address was current at the time of the breach.
The statement reads: "We have written to all named individuals either directly or via their solicitors. If there are any individuals whose names were impacted by last year's breach but who have not received information about the payment for some reason, they can contact us or ask their solicitors if they have legal representation."
According to law firm Freeths, 348 clients whose data was compromised have already received compensation. Lawyer Will Richmond-Coggan said: "We welcome the progress we have made with this case, but there is still a long way to go to recognise the devastating impact of this breach for those affected."
Chris Head, a former sub-postmaster, approved of the Post Office's acknowledgement of the data breach error, but he said that it took "far too long to right this wrong." He added: "We cannot underestimate the level of pain, anxiety, stress and worry that so many people have had to suffer through this new episode.
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Subsequent investigation, known as the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, showed that the discrepancies were actually due to errors in the Post Office Horizon accounting software.
"Post Office did not seem to understand how much this impacted those people. They appeared unwilling to engage in genuine discussions until further action was on the table. The impact on myself and my family has been profound on top of an already traumatic past 10 years due to the Horizon scandal."
Earlier this year, the Post Office announced that it would cut about 100 jobs as part of plans to boost payouts to thousands of its subpostmasters. Senior managers were told that they would be affected after acting chief executive Neil Brocklehurst sent a note to all staff, which the PA news agency saw.
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At the time, he wrote: "The intention behind these proposed changes remains to create a more efficient team that can effectively deliver a sustainable future for the network, for postmasters and their communities. The intention is to rebase our costs to help fund the upcoming transformative change which aims to leave the Post Office on a more sustainable financial footing. It is critical that we continue to make progress in resetting Post Office for the future."
The cuts were part of a major reform initiated by chairman Nigel Railton in November, who announced a £250 million increase in subpostmaster pay over the next five years. The Post Office also disclosed plans to divest 115 of its directly-owned branches from its network of 11,500.
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