‘Enough is enough! It’s an utter disgrace... I’ve told them I will not accept the offer’

Widow blasts Post Office delays after Horizon scandal victim husband dies week before payout is finally offered

- Stephen Beech

THE widow of a Post Office scandal victim who had a compensation offer days after he died has branded the delay “a slap in the face”.

Terry Walters, 76, whose funeral took place yesterday, passed away last month after years of ill health.

A letter arrived a week later offering “less than half” of his original claim for financial redress.

Terry was one of 555 sub-postmasters who won a legal battle against the Post Office in 2019.

Hundreds were falsely accused, and many wrongly convicted, of stealing from their branches between 1999 and 2015 due to the faulty Horizon IT system.

Terry’s wife Janet, 68, said the length of time many victims have had to wait for compensation offers was another “scandal”.

She blasted: “Enough is enough. It’s an utter disgrace. I’ve told them I will not accept the offer.

“I won't just take anything and go away. It’s a scandal what they did with the Horizon system, it’s a scandal now because of the length of time it’s taken.”

Janet says her husband’s claim was submitted in February 2024, but it took a year to receive an offer from the Government.

She said: “It should have been a 40-day turnaround of an offer. It’s taken 12 months to receive an offer, an offer which came after Terry had passed away.

“They wanted a stroke report back in September to drag it out a bit more, to see if it’s being caused by the stress from the Post Office.

“It contributed considerably to the whole state of him.”