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POST OFFICE HORIZON SHORTFALL SCHEME
July 2024 REPORT
Introduction
Following discussion with the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board, this report was
commissioned by the former Minister Hollinrake and will be produced quarterly by the
Department for Business and Trade (DBT). Due to the restrictions following the
announcement of the General Election, this report covers the months of May and June
2024.
The Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS) aims to independently assess and resolve
applications from current and former Postmasters who believe they may have been
affected by shortfalls related to previous versions of Horizon. The HSS does not apply to
those who have criminal convictions or were plaintiffs in the GLO.
If a Postmaster is unhappy with their claim outcome, they can seek legal advice at Post
Office’s cost and also take advantage of a dispute resolution process that includes
independent mediation.
Figures
The current position in respect of claims as at 31 May and 28 June was:
Offer and Payment progress for Origi 31 May
2024 2024
Number of eligible claims still awaiting an offer 0 0
Total number of settlement offers made to date 2417 2417
Total value of settlement offers made to date £112.3 £112.4m*
Total number of settlement offers accepted to date 2065 2064
Total value of settlement offers accepted to date £72.05 £71.72m
Total number of payments made to date 2062 2061
Total value paid to applicants to date “te? £99.44 £99.12m
Total number of tax top-up payments made to date 1704 1657
Total value of tax top-up payments made to date £12.07 £11.89m
Claims going through dispute resolution 289 290
e Note 1: Of 31 May £99.12m paid to date, £29.21m had been in interim payments.
e Note 1: Of 28 June £99.44m paid to date, £29.47m had been in interim payments.
« *the settlement values decreased between months due to a correction
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Offer and Payment progress for Subsequent Applications (since Oct 28 June 31 May
2022) 2024 2024
Number of subsequent applications received to date 1887 1777
Number of subsequent applications with eligibility confirmed (either 1438 4092
ineligible or eligible) received to date
Number of eligible applications received to date 1261 948
Total number of settlement offers sent to date 313 303
Total value of settlement offers made to date £18.1m £17.2m
Total number of settlement offers accepted to date 195 183
Total value of settlements offers accepted to date £7.12m £6.75m
Total number of payments made to date 183 175
Total value paid to applicants to date “e? £11.14m £10.13m
Total number of tax top-up payments made to date 152 148
Total value of tax top-up payments made to date £1.11m £1.09m
Claims going through dispute resolution 88 79
e Note 1: Of 31 May £10.13m paid to date, £3.74m had been in interim payments.
e Note 1: Of 28 June £11.14m paid to date, £4.37m had been in interim payments.
Observations
At the 28 June 2024, Post Office had received 1,887 subsequent applications
(applications received since October 2022) of which 1,438 have had eligibility
confirmed (either ineligible or eligible) and Post Office continues to work through the
eligibility assessment of the remaining applications. Of the 1,438, Post Office
considers upwards of 500 claims may be suitable candidates for a £75k Fixed Sum
Offer. Post Office expects to contact all claimants without an offer to provide further
details of the Fixed Sum Offer and options open to Postmasters in the short term.
1,453 of the 1,887 late applications were received in 2024. Before this, Post Office
was receiving applications at an average rate of c.20 per month and had appropriate
resources in place accordingly. Application volumes were expected to reduce further
in 2024. While the pace of new applications has slowed since the peaks in January
2024, we are still seeing c.25 new applications per week.
Additional resources have been (and continue to be) put in place in light of this
increase and the expected further application volumes. There may be some initial
delays in processing applications while the resource is onboarded/trained.
Post Office is considering what suitable service level agreements it can introduce,
similar to the GLO, to monitor the speed of claim to Offer, while appreciating the fact
that the HSS is different from the GLO in many regards, not least the unknown
volume of HSS claims. Once the £75k Fixed Sum Award approach is fully agreed,
Post Office will be in a better position to return to this important question.
6 August 2024