Post office operators yet to claim compensation of at least £600,000 each relating to the Horizon IT scandal have not been chased up by officials because the government did not want to “harass” them with letters, it has emerged.Who believes that? If you do, I've got a bridge to sell you!
In a report criticising the speed and handling of payouts after the Post Office scandal, the House of Commons public accounts committee (PAC) said the government is taking “insufficient action” identifying all the operators eligible to claim some of the £1.7bn being paid out across four compensation schemes.
When asked by the PAC why it was not following up letters that had not received a reply, the government said that it was “concerned that individuals receiving letters would feel harassed if they had a series of letters asking the same thing”.
Oh, please! Is that really the best they can come up with?
The Post Office made a pre-tax loss of £612m last year, while its debts have ballooned to more than the value of its assets, and is to close 115 loss-making branches, putting 2,000 jobs at risk.
If it was a horse, it would be heading for the glue-factory in the knacker’s van by now.
"...the government said that it was “concerned that individuals receiving letters would feel harassed if they had a series of letters asking the same thing”.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if TV Licencing are listening.
Any sensible government (!) would sense the mood and immediately pay all of them the first 50% of their claims - then argue about the rest. That would take all the heat out of it and allow calmer minds to be applied to the balance. But when was the last time we saw a sensible government?
ReplyDelete