The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has ordered an ‘independent assurance review’ into prosecutions of Post Office staff for alleged welfare offences during the Horizon IT scandal
Dozens of prosecutions of subpostmasters by the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) are set to be looked at by a new probe.
Around 100 people were taken to court by the Government department between 2001 and 2006 while the Horizon IT scandal unfolded, and 61 were convicted. The DWP now faces calls to “come clean” about its actions.
They were prosecuted over allegations of welfare-related fraud – which many claim they did to settle balances due to the faulty computer system. They say they have yet to be properly exonerated. The DWP has confirmed it will be commissioning an “independent assurance review” to look into its handling of the prosecutions. It comes after Gordon Brown blasts the return of ‘poverty of 60 years ago’ as he makes one big demand.
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Hundreds of postmasters and staff were prosecuted and lost their savings and livelihood after dodgy software made it look like money was missing from their branches. Convictions of more than 700 who were wrongly pursued by the Post Office were torn up last January. At least 13 are believed to have taken their own lives, a public inquiry found.
Public anger grew after ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office screened last year, highlighting the harrowing ordeals scandal victims endured. Questions remain over prosecutions by the DWP – but it insists there is “no evidence” the Horizon system, made by Fujitsu, was used to secure convictions.
It emerged last year that the DWP had taken part in joint investigations alongside the Post Office, piling pressure on the department to look again at its actions.
Labour peer Lord Sikka said: “The DWP has never come clean about its prosecution of postmasters. After nearly 30 years the slow progress of the DWP investigations, lack of urgency and transparency is very disappointing. No postmaster should be excluded from the review.”
A DWP spokesman said: “We have committed to commissioning an independent assurance review where Post Office members of staff were prosecuted by the Department for welfare-related fraud.
“These cases involved complex investigations and were backed by evidence including filmed surveillance, stolen benefit books and witness statements – to date, no documentation has been identified showing that Horizon data was essential to these prosecutions.”
The new review will look at how DWP investigators gathered an reviewed evidence during the Horizon scandal. It will also assess the thoroughness and adequacy of efforts to obtain case documents.
But it will not review or comment on individual cases prosecuted by the DWP.
Many cases are believed to centre around stolen pension dockets. One victim, referred to as Holly, told The Sunday Times she was convicted of theft and ended up serving four months behind bars.
“Twenty years later years later, I have moved on with my life to the best I can but the impact it has had on me, and my family, has been something else,” she said.
Holly told the newspaper she thinks she was blamed for pensions dockets that had been cashed.
Subpostmaster Roger Allen, from Norwich, was convicted in 2004 of stealing pension payments by the DWP. He was jailed for six months.
The family of Mr Allen, who died last March, are determined he will still be exonerated. Daughter Keren Simpson said: “He couldn’t even talk about it, it was so difficult for him. I wanted him to know that I wouldn’t give up. And I won’t.”
In a long-awaited document last month(JULY) Sir Wyn Williams, who chairs the Horizon IT Inquiry, said Post Office chiefs should have known the faulty software could produce false data. He estimated 10,000 people may be eligible for compensation – saying postmasters and their families should be regarded as “victims of wholly unacceptable behaviour” by the Post Office and Fujitsu.
The report said at least 13 people are believed to have taken their own lives as a result of the impact of the Horizon scandal, including Martin Griffiths, 59, who deliberately stepped in front of a bus in 2013. And Sir Wyn revealed 59 others had contemplated suicide – including 10 who attempted to do so.
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