More than two decades ago, the Post Office’s Horizon IT scandal shattered the lives of hundreds of UK subpostmasters.
In one of the country’s biggest miscarriages of justice, more than 900 were wrongly accused of fraud, theft, and false accounting in the early 2000s due to faulty technical systems in Post Office branches.
As the Post Office sought to reclaim discrepancies in its payments, subpostmasters were forced to pay thousands out of their own pockets to balance their books. Others were jailed, lost their homes, and had to pay hefty legal fees.
The 2024 ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office brought this scandal back into the spotlight, leading to mounting public calls for accountability and compensation for the families impacted.
Despite recent efforts to compensate those impacted, the damage has been long-lasting and life-changing for many of those affected by the scandal.
The 13 people took their lives as a result of the Post Office scandal and dozens more contemplated taking their lives.
In response, the UK government has said it “will provide redress for close family members of those postmasters most adversely affected by the scandal.”
Gareth Thomas, Post Office Minister, said: “We must never lose sight of the Horizon Scandal’s human impact on postmasters and their families, which the Inquiry has highlighted so well.”
Here’s everything you need to know about the ongoing compensation progress.
How many convictions were there?
Between 1999 and 2015, the Post Office convicted 700 subpostmasters who it believed could be linked to Horizon systems. There were 983 cases, including those not prosecuted by the Post Office.
Since 2021, 101 of these convictions had been overturned by the appeals court, and a further 77 cases were referred to the courts, pending the possibility of being overturned. Fifty-five convictions have been upheld.
Then, in 2024, following outcry over the ITV drama, a law was introduced to quash the hundreds of outstanding convictions caused by the Post Office Scandal. According to the UK government website, 594 people have had at least one conviction quashed as of March 2025.
How many people wrongfully convicted have received compensation?
More than £1 billion has been paid out to wrongly convicted subpostmasters and those affected by the scandal so far, according to a UK government announcement released in June 2025.
The announcement claims that this payout was divided among more than 7,300 claimants, although the recent inquiry estimated that around 10,000 people were eligible for compensation.
At the moment, there isn’t one universal scheme that is working towards this compensation.
In 2019, 555 subpostmasters took the Post Office to the High Court and were awarded almost £57m. Legal fees swallowed a large proportion of this, and each person was awarded only £20,000. A subsequent Group litigation order scheme (GLOS) was set up to ensure the subpostmasters were fairly compensated.
The Horizon Shortfall Scheme was similarly set up for people who weren’t convicted but suffered considerable financial losses due to the Horizon IT system, as well as the Overturned Convictions Scheme (OCS) and the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS).
This week, Sir Wyn Williams concluded that some claimants hadn’t received fair and full compensation over the ordeal.
“I am persuaded that in the difficult and substantial claims, on too many occasions, the Post Office and its advisors have adopted an unnecessarily adversarial attitude towards making initial offers which have had the effect of depressing the level at which settlements have been achieved,” Sir Wyn wrote in his report.
Did Mr Bates receive compensation?
Mr Bates was among the 555 claimants who took the Post Office to the High Court, meaning he was also eligible for around a £20,000 payout.
In January 2024, Mr Bates rejected a further compensation offer proposed by the Government, calling it “offensive.”
He told the Telegraph: “I will absolutely be turning this offer for financial redress down.
“It is just a terrible way to treat human beings — and I have heard from several subpostmasters who have received similarly derisory offers, while others are still waiting.
“Bearing in mind my solicitors engaged forensic accountants to prepare my claim in accordance with established legal principles, it now seems we have to spend hours and hours over weeks and months with Government-appointed lawyers at who knows what cost, just to point out these legal principles to them. But to them, it might just be a good earner.”
In May 2025, Mr Bates was offered a “take it or leave it” payout that was less than 50% of his original claim. He slammed the current compensation schemes as “quasi-kangaroo courts in which the Department for Business and Trade sits in judgment of the claims and alters the goalposts as and when it chooses.”
