Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS): applying for financial redress
Follow these steps to register for the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS) and apply for your financial redress.
1. Register
Who can register
You are eligible for financial redress if you had a conviction that has been quashed by one of the following:
- Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Act
- a court ruling
This means we will pay you for your losses.
You can still register if you think you’re eligible for the scheme but you’ve not got a letter regarding your quashed conviction by legislation.
If your conviction was overturned by the courts and you applied for the Overturned Convictions (OC) scheme (previously administered by the Post Office), your claim has now moved to HCRS. You or your legal representative will have been notified of this.
You do not need to register online. Your caseworker will contact you directly to request the details we need to complete your onboarding. This includes completing your identity checks and providing further information supporting your application and onboarding to HCRS.
If your conviction has been quashed by legislation
Your court and police records are being amended by His Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) and the police.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) is ensuring that records of your quashed convictions are removed from the Police National Computer (PNC). Since the PNC is the single national collection of convictions, this means that:
-
there will no longer be a record of your quashed conviction available for day-to-day policing
-
the quashed conviction will not be disclosed on any future criminal record check, such as a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check
2. Complete your ID checks
3. Apply for your preliminary payment
Once your identification documents have been verified, you and your solicitor will need to complete and send us the preliminary payment application form. This form also includes a fraud safeguard statement you’ll need to sign.
You will then receive a preliminary payment of £200,000 unless you have already received an equivalent preliminary payment through the previous OC scheme.
This allows you time to consider whether to accept the £600,000 optional fixed settlement or request a detailed assessment.
If you live in the UK, you do not need to pay tax on any payments you get from the HCRS. They will not impact any benefits you receive.
You may need to read guidance on how a bankruptcy, Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) or a Debt Relief Order (DRO) affects your redress payment.
Complete the and email it to horizonconvictionsredress@businessandtrade.gov.uk to receive your £200,000 preliminary payment.
We’ll email you when we’ve processed your payment.
If your claim has moved from the Overturned Convictions scheme to HCRS, we’ve received your existing claim information from Post Office. However, we still need some additional information from you.
Complete the and email it to horizonconvictionsredress@businessandtrade.gov.uk to proceed with further payments relating to your claim.
4. Read the assessment framework and your disclosure bundle
You and your solicitor should use the available documents to decide whether you’re going to take the optional fixed settlement of £600,000 or request a detailed assessment.
If you decide to accept the £600,000 optional fixed settlement, you will receive a final payment of £400,000. This amount when added to your £200,000 preliminary payment, will equal the £600,000 optional fixed settlement.
Assessment framework
The assessment framework sets out some examples of losses, and how much you might be owed in financial redress under the scheme for suffering them.
Read the assessment framework.
Disclosure bundle
If you were a postmaster, employed directly by the Post Office, you will receive a disclosure bundle.
Your disclosure bundle is a set of documents related to your work with the Post Office, and the events leading up to your conviction.
At this stage, your disclosure bundle will include the information we have on:
-
your contract and remuneration with the Post Office
-
whether you were eligible for the Royal Mail Share Plan
Your bundle will be uploaded to a secure portal, along with any other documents we share with you.
We’ll send you and your solicitor details on how to sign in to the secure portal.
If you were not employed by the Post Office, you will not receive a disclosure bundle. However, you can request more information from the Post Office by contacting us at horizonconvictionsredress@businessandtrade.gov.uk.
If you need your tax records
You can request your tax records if you wish. We recommend this step, as it will help you decide whether to take the £600,000 optional fixed settlement or request a detailed assessment. This will also make the process quicker.
If you need more information
If you need more information to make your decision, you can request it by contacting us at horizonconvictionsredress@businessandtrade.gov.uk.
We’ll let you know if this information is available and when it has been added to the portal.
5. Decide whether to take £600,000 or request a detailed assessment
Once we have confirmed your eligibility, we’ll send the 2 application forms to the contact details you have provided. You should complete and send us either the optional fixed settlement application form or the detailed assessment application form.
You should seek legal advice to help you, using our guidance on finding a solicitor.
There is no time limit for you to decide which option to take.
Option 1: take the £600,000 optional fixed settlement
If you decide to accept the £600,000 optional fixed settlement upfront, you will receive a final payment of £400,000. This amount, when added to your £200,000 preliminary payment, will equal the £600,000 optional fixed settlement.
If you accept the fixed sum settlement, you cannot get a detailed assessment at a later stage.
If you live in the UK, you do not need to pay tax on any payments you get from the HCRS. They will not impact any benefits you receive.
Complete the and email it to horizonconvictionsredress@businessandtrade.gov.uk to take the £600,000 optional fixed settlement.
Complete the if both the following apply:
- your claim has moved to HCRS from the OC scheme
- you have decided to take the £600,000 optional fixed settlement
Email the completed form to horizonconvictionsredress@businessandtrade.gov.uk
Option 2: request a detailed assessment
If you request a detailed assessment:
- your detailed assessment settlement might be less than £600,000
- Once you have received your first detailed assessment offer, you can still accept the £600,000 fixed sum payment within 3 calendar months.
You will not be able to revert to the £600,000 fixed sum once the 3-month period has passed.
You will need to provide evidence of your losses so you can receive the exact amount you lost.
This includes both financial damages (such as lost earnings) and personal damages (the impact on your life).
Submitting your evidence
You will need to submit your completed detailed assessment application form and evidence to the portal.
Use our guidance on how to request a detailed assessment.
After you have submitted your evidence
Once we have confirmed that your detailed assessment application form contains everything needed to assess your claim and we do not need any further information, you will receive a payment of £250,000 to bring your financial redress to £450,000.
Your case worker will contact you if they have any queries.
Receiving your detailed assessment offer
You will then receive a detailed assessment offer with an explanation on how the amount was calculated.
You and your solicitor then need to consider whether to accept the offer or not. You must decide within 3 calendar months of your first offer if you want to return to the £600,000 fixed sum.
If you disagree with your offer, you can discuss your options with your case worker and solicitor.
If you cannot come to an agreement, read the guidance on appealing your offer.
Accepting your detailed assessment offer
Once you have accepted your detailed assessment offer, you will sign a settlement agreement to formalise this.
You should note:
- any payments you have already received will be deducted from the final settlement payment
- interest is generally payable on past financial damages. Interest will be paid at 3.45% compound from the date the loss was incurred, where relevant. Interest is not payable on non-financial damages
If you live in the UK, you do not need to pay tax on any payments you get from the HCRS. They will not impact any benefits you receive.
6. Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) (optional)
You can use the ADR process if you have opted for a detailed assessment of your claim and both of the following apply:
-
you do not agree with your offer
-
you are unable to reach an agreement with the Department for Business and Trade (DBT)
The ADR process consists of 2 stages:
-
stage 1: case management and facilitated discussions – Dentons will mediate conversations between you and DBT to attempt to reach agreement
-
stage 2: Independent Panel – an independent decision-making body will assess your case and make a recommendation on redress payable
Read further guidance on the alternative dispute resolution process.
Updates to this page
-
Section 5 'Decide whether to take £600,000 or request a detailed assessment' updated (specifically, subsections 'Option 1' and 'Option 2') to reflect the option to accept a fixed sum payment within 3 calendar months of receiving your first detailed assessment offer.
-
Page updated to reflect that the Overturned Convictions (OC) scheme (previously administered by the Post Office), has transitioned into the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS), administered by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). Guidance for claimants and 2 new forms have been added to the page. These include the 'OC to HCRS fixed settlement form' and 'OC to HCRS application information form'.
-
Section 6: 'Appeal your offer' amended to outline eligibility for and stages involved in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process.
-
HCRS preliminary payment application form updated: clarified bank detail requirements for personal representatives, added check boxes for bankruptcy details, removed additional information requests related to IVAs and DROs, made options clearer for claimants when completing the declaration, added additional signature boxes and provided clearer guidance on required signatures for personal representatives.
-
Guidance on how a bankruptcy, IVA or DRO affects your redress payment added to '3. Apply for your preliminary payment' section.
-
Updated the HCRS preliminary payment application form: 2 additional questions added on the ‘Linked Applications’ section - 'Have you received an offer or payment because of your application to any other Post Office scheme?' and 'If so, how much has been paid/offered?'; bankruptcy table expanded asking for more information up from if applicable; a new text box to fill in for debt relief orders.
-
Preliminary payment application form updated to make bankruptcy section clearer for applicants.
-
Preliminary payment form updated to include: a question asking for details of any linked applications, the email address that applicants must send the form to, the payment policy.
-
First published.