Post Office and Windrush scandal victims waiting years for compensation as £12bn still unpaid

The Post Office owes an estimated £15bn in compensation to victims of major UK scandals including Horizon IT, Windrush and infected blood, according to a new report.

The National Audit Office (NAO) found that only a quarter of the total had reached those affected by February this year.

While the public spending watchdog noted improvements in newer compensation plans designed to learn from past delays and backlogs, many people still face long waits for financial compensation.

Underlining the seriousness of the situation, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said the figure of close to £15 billion “reveals the extent of suffering” endured by victims facing “horrible harms and injustices”.

The NAO report, published on Friday, said the government had distributed around £3.5bn across seven programmes, but a further £11.4bn remained potentially unpaid.

This brings the total estimated compensation to £14.9bn.

The NAO said: “Some eligible people have been waiting more than a year after submitting their claim to receive payment.

“All programs have more work to do to reach as many potentially eligible people as possible and support them in making claims.”

The watchdog assessed seven government plans relating to four major scandals and said most of the estimated total – around £12.8bn – was expected to go to victims of the infected blood scandal.

It has been called the worst treatment disaster in NHS history, with more than 30,000 people in the UK becoming infected with HIV and hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood and blood products between the 1970s and the early 1990s.

More than 3,000 people died as a result, and those who survived live with lifelong health problems.

Other plans considered by the NAO related to the Windrush scandal, now referred to by some victims as the Home Office scandal, which broke out in 2018 when British citizens were wrongly detained, deported or threatened with deportation despite having the right to live in Britain.

The NAO also examined four plans for victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, in which people were wrongfully prosecuted and convicted in the UK between 1999 and 2015 due to Fujitsu’s faulty software, with a significant number of people considering self-harm and some taking their own lives.

The report also considered the LGBT Financial Recognition Scheme run by the Ministry of Defense to provide compensation to UK Armed Forces veterans who were discharged or discharged as a result of the pre-2000 homosexuality ban.

Four out of five of the seven programs that remain open have received requests from two-thirds or more of the expected total number of eligible people, the report said.

But the watchdog warned that “for most plans, this number is a highly uncertain estimate.”

The report noted that “in many cases, initial estimates of the speed at which programs received and processed claims were inaccurate,” with some programs resulting in a backlog of cases and resulting longer processing times for compensation to be distributed.

But the watchdog said “major changes” to the way the schemes operate, described as more relaxed evidence requirements, had helped tackle backlogs and waiting times.

As an example, final payments have been made for more than 80% of eligible claims for Horizon programs.

The report warned that plans had to balance the need to process payments quickly with the “increased likelihood of overpayments, underpayments and fraud.”

The watchdog said all the schemes it considered included “identity checks to guard against false applications, including the risk that the schemes could be targeted by organized crime groups”.

Sir Geoffrey said: “Victims of the actions or inactions of public bodies are rightfully entitled to compensation for the terrible harms and injustices they have suffered.

“The size of the government’s compensation programs makes clear the extent of the pain: an estimated £14.9bn in compensation across the most important programmes, including just £12.8bn for victims of the infected blood scandal.

“Despite many of the damages stretching back years and in some cases decades, most of them have yet to be paid.

“The government has historically underestimated the complexity of these schemes, which means people are waiting too long to get paid.

“The government is trying to implement lessons learned from previous experiences, but there is work to be done to ensure everyone eligible receives the compensation they are owed.”

NAO chief executive Gareth Davies said: “People facing harm should be able to expect a clear process for making a claim for compensation and there should be no unreasonable delay in processing their claims.

“There is clear evidence that newer compensation programs are learning from the experience of earlier programs, helping to reach more affected people and speed up payments to those who are eligible.”

A Government spokesman said that by the end of March “more than £5.1 billion in compensation had been paid through this or similar temporary schemes” but added that it was “recognised that no amount of money will compensate for the impact these scandals have had on victims and their families”.

They added: “We continually work with relevant communities to improve the receipt and delivery of compensation and have made numerous improvements to our programs in response to recommendations in recent years.

“The rate of compensation paid shows that this Government is serious about delivering justice as quickly as possible.”