Post Office to harness technology to automate scandal financial redress payments

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Post Office to harness technology to automate scandal financial redress payments

In-house teams at the Post Office are working with technology that could speed up the payment of compensation to victims of the Horizon scandal.

Subpostmasters, who suffered hugely at the hands of the Post Office and its unreliable Horizon IT system, have waited years for their claims to be settled and pressure is mounting on the government and the Post Office to speed up payments.

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technology like that used by banks could automate the payment of smaller sums – up to £75,000 – which make up the bulk of claims. Technology to speed up claims that require assessment is also being considered.

This would free up resources to focus on larger, more complex claims.

During a Parliamentary Business and Trade Select Committee hearing on the slow pace of Post Office scandal financial redress schemes, Nigel Railton, interim chairman at the Post Office, said the bulk of payments could be automated to speed up the process.

He said changes need to be made to how financial redress is paid to scandal victims, but he doesn’t want to slow things down. “The Post Office should not be dealing with financial redress, but we have to be pragmatic.”

Railton suggested the Post Office could retain the small, simple claims, which are many in number, while more complex claims should be with the Department for Business and Trade (DBT).

“In an ideal world, it would all be with DBT, but let’s be pragmatic and think about dividing the schemes. High volume, low complexity with the Post Office, and low volume, high complexity with DBT,” he said.

Railton suggested automation technology could be applied to the £75,000 fixed sum payments for applicants to the Horizon Shortfalls Scheme who do not wish to have claims assessed further. “The £75,000 is quite straightforward. As I understand it, we have to find one shortfall, and based on that, we will generate a cheque,” he said. “That, to me, is a process we can automate – it doesn’t need a lot of judgement because the rules are very clear.”

The Post Office is considering how it can do this using technology, such as straight-through processing. A company spokesperson said: “For the £75,000 fixed sum, the process enables postmasters to receive payments within 10 days, once valid acceptances of offers are received. We are working in-house to use technology for swift payments and to handle an expected higher volume of claims.”

The technology could go further and speed up claims that are fully assessed, according to a Post Office spokesperson. “We are also, alongside government, considering how technology might be applied to accelerate redress for postmasters who opt for full assessment of their claim,” said the spokesperson.

Computer Weekly first exposed the scandal in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered due to Horizon accounting software, which led to the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history (see below timeline of Computer Weekly articles about the scandal since 2009).

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