There has been a lot of coverage recently of the Post Office scandal and it honestly took me back to a conversation I had with a friend a few years ago when we were talking about Windrush, other scandals and what it should look like. Neither of us work in the area now, nor have we ever, but we were discussing what compensation should look like.
Whilst the two situations are wholly different, the impact that it has had on people's lives has been similar in that people have lost their livelihoods, their savings, their freedom, their retirement and some of them have lost their lives before ever seeing justice, some at their own hands, because they couldn't take what a situation which was completely outside of themselves and their control.
We discussed what monetary compensation should look like and we both agreed that financially people should be put back into the position they were in prior to it happening, which is the generally accepted position, but we discussed how that should be 'in real terms'. When we talk about something using the phrase 'real terms' it's often talking about real terms pay cuts, where pay cuts are below the rate of inflation, so although you receive more money, you get less (for want of a better word) stuff for that money and so you didn't really get a pay rise. Even though it can be difficult to prove the position people were previously in, or it can be difficult to put a number on what that looks like, if someone was getting ready to buy a house (which is a really bad example in some ways, but not in others) then they should be returned to the position where they are able to buy a house. Now, obviously it is unlikely that they would be able to buy the same house that they had been looking at, but if for example they were looking at a three bedroom house in a 'nice' area, then we're not compensating them if after any form of payout they're having to look at buying a one bedroom flat in a tower block or something similar. In effect, we should be looking to put them back to where they were or better.
As much as I don't like the idea of the Americanisation of the UK, and the fact that people will sue each other over anything these days, when we talk about compensation we can only talk about money, and that is rubbish because more often than not, what people have lost is not money.
A different friend was in an accident, and the impact of that accident has undoubtedly shortened his life. It has changed his appearance, his ability to cope, even his personality to an extent, and whilst he 'got a payout' we had a discussion once where he said he would give all of the money back to have a body that works, a normal life span, and not to be exceptionally close to a panic attack every time there's a dicey moment in the car (which with the way people drive, happens a lot). The money that he was given, the money he was deemed to be owed, won't extend his life, nor does it remove all of the difficulties he has, and it hasn't allowed him to course correct and get back to the life he had planned and was working towards, but nothing really can. The money does mean he can do things like paying for cleaners so he doesn't have to struggle with it, and he can pay for taxis so he doesn't have to drive. To some degree he could choose to spend that money pampering himself, like trips to Bali every year or something, which might not be the life he planned, but it's a pretty good life.
It seems to me that what is being discussed for these former Post Masters and Mistresses is one fixed figure, as though the experiences of everyone is one fixed thing. There is some acknowledgement that that isn't true, because there's one figure for those who weren't convicted and a higher figure for those who were, but again this suggests that the experiences of each, and what each lost is either one or the other. There's something impersonal about it, and that doesn't feel right. Whilst anything more wouldn't be quick, the whole thing hasn't been quick. It's been going on for so long, and it's been such a long fight that I think it would be better if these payments were more of an interim whilst a better assessment was made so that those who were impacted even more significantly are able to receive a sum that 'makes them whole' as though anything ever can, but without having to wait for all of the sums to be done. They should be able to get their lives back on track from now. By rights, they should have been able to do this a lot of years ago.
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