Janet Skinner’s story is a striking example of the human toll behind the notorious Post Office Horizon IT scandal—a saga that has upended thousands of lives across the United Kingdom. For Skinner, a former subpostmistress from Hull, the fallout has been relentless: wrongful conviction, imprisonment, loss of home and livelihood, and crippling health issues. Now, after years of waiting for justice, she faces a new ordeal—an official compensation offer that amounts to just 15% of her claim, a figure she and her supporters describe as both “startling” and “egregious.”
Back in 2007, Skinner was convicted of false accounting, accused of stealing £59,000 that the faulty Horizon IT system claimed had vanished from her branch’s accounts. The BBC reports that she was sentenced to nine months in prison and ultimately served two months behind bars. The consequences didn’t end with her release: Skinner lost her home, her job, and, for a time, her independence. Less than a year after leaving prison, she found herself back in court as the Post Office pursued her for failing to pay what it called “proceeds of crime.” That legal battle was resolved in less than two weeks, but the stress had already taken its toll.
“My immune system had broken down, basically my body attacked itself,” Skinner told the BBC, describing the neurological collapse that left her paralyzed from the neck down. She spent a year in a wheelchair and two years relearning to walk. Even now, she struggles with constant pain, limited mobility, and daily tasks that most people take for granted. “I’m in pain all the time. It’s changed my life completely,” she said. Simple acts—like spraying deodorant or even climbing the stairs—require assistance or inventive workarounds, often with help from her son.
Her conviction was finally quashed in April 2021, one of nearly 40 such cases overturned that month, according to ITV News. Yet, the path to redress has been anything but straightforward. Preparing her compensation claim took more than four and a half years, a process that required her to submit five different medical reports. Earlier this year, a hearing saw the Post Office accept expert testimony that directly linked her severe health problems to the “extreme stress” she endured during her ordeal.
Despite this, the government’s compensation offer landed with a thud: just 15% of her claim, which she says is “well below a million [pounds].” The exact size of her claim remains undisclosed, but Skinner and her legal team emphasize that the offer is far below what is both typical and fair. “What should be happening is a payment that is a very substantive percentage of what her ultimate claim will be. The usual is 80%,” explained her lawyer, Simon Goldberg of Simons Muirhead Burton. “So to have come up with the figure that they have come up with is startling and egregious.”
The government, for its part, insists it is committed to delivering justice. A spokesperson told ITV News, “We pay tribute to all the postmasters including Janet who have suffered from the Horizon scandal, which is why the amount paid to postmasters has increased fivefold to over £1 billion as part of our ongoing commitment to deliver justice to victims as swiftly as possible. While we do not comment on individual cases, we take every effort to make full and fair offers to all claimants, and an independent dispute resolution process is available to all applicants who are not content with their offer.”
Yet, victims and their advocates say the reality is more complicated. According to the BBC, more than 8,000 victims have received compensation, with over £1 billion paid out so far. The majority of these payments have been uncontested, fixed payouts—either £75,000 or £600,000, depending on the severity of the case. But for those with complex claims, especially those involving long-term health impacts and lost earnings, the process is much more contentious. Goldberg alleges that government and Post Office-appointed lawyers are “fighting tooth and nail” to minimize payouts, dragging out proceedings and racking up hundreds of millions of pounds in legal fees. “It’s not saving the public purse a penny. It’s actually costing the public purse in the medium term,” he argued, pointing to the mounting costs of protracted legal battles.
For Skinner, the compensation process itself has become another source of trauma. “Some people give probably due to medical reasons or because of the mental torture—because it is mental torture—and what they’re doing is they’re inflicting mental health issues onto people who have already suffered massively during this scandal,” she told ITV News. The frustration is compounded by the sense that her meticulously prepared claim, backed by expert reports, has been ignored. “It’s like you put your claim in sand and a big whirlwind comes and blows it all away because it’s as if they’ve just literally bypassed anything that’s been written.”
Despite the setbacks, Skinner remains determined. She has already rejected the government’s offer and says she is prepared to go to court if necessary to secure fair compensation. “I just think the more they push me, the harder I’m going to keep pushing back, and I don’t intend to give up,” she said. Her lawyer has written to Darren Jones MP, a prominent advocate for wronged sub-postmasters and now a key figure in government, urging political intervention. “The only way to resolve this is political pressure from the very top,” Goldberg insisted.
The Department for Business and Trade, which recently took over responsibility for delivering redress for overturned convictions, maintains that it strives to make “full and fair offers” and points to the availability of an independent dispute resolution process for dissatisfied claimants. However, for Skinner and many others like her, the process remains fraught with obstacles, delays, and—above all—a sense that justice is still out of reach.
As the government faces mounting pressure to resolve these complex cases, Skinner’s story stands as a stark reminder of the enduring impact of the Horizon scandal—not just in financial terms, but in the very real, everyday struggles of those whose lives were upended by a system gone wrong. While billions have been paid out and many have received closure, for victims like Janet Skinner, the fight for fair compensation—and genuine justice—continues.
