The postal minister has said that family members and employees of post office branch owners who have not been eligible to make claims over the Horizon IT scandal may be allowed to apply for compensation.
Gareth Thomas told the inquiry into the scandal on Friday that the government has been looking into the “gaps” in the eligibility criteria for those wanting to make claims under the four redress schemes being administered by the Post Office and the government.
The current schemes exclude applications from family members and assistants at branches because only the person with a direct contract with the Post Office is eligible to apply.
Managers and counter assistants at branches have a contract with the owner-operator, not the Post Office.
And while many branches are run by family teams, not all members have the contract with the Post Office.
“[Employees and counter assistants] are one of the gaps in the compensation process,” said Thomas. “We are actively looking at what we can do to address those gaps. As indeed we are looking at family members affected very badly by the Horizon scandal and cannot claim compensation either. It was one of those issues identified as being very significant.”
Thomas also said that if claimants to the existing schemes can file by Christmas he is confident that payouts can be made by the end of March, the unofficial deadline sought by the leading campaigner Alan Bates.
However, Thomas has previously conceded that not all compensation claims will be completed by that time, and that no date has been set for a deadline for final applications to be received.
“Officials have been talking to claimants’ lawyers and looking at potential timings of those claims coming in,” he said. “If claims come in by Christmas we will be able to have made offers of paid financial redress by the end of March.”
Bates has suggested that post office operators could take fresh legal action if the government fails to set a deadline for compensating them.
Thomas also said that the government intends to publish a green paper next year to get nationwide views on the future governance options for the Post Office.
Kevin Hollinrake, his predecessor, held “constructive” talks with Post Office workers about ultimately transferring ownership through mutualisation.
However, he told the inquiry this week that there are many issues involved with the transfer of ownership of the 11,500 branch service to operators.
“It is difficult to be anything other than concerned about culture in the Post Office,” Thomas said on Friday. “There has been some early conversations with stakeholders … about how to change that governance and also look at improvements to culture going forward. We are thinking we will publish a green paper next year to invite wider views about the future of the Post Office.”