“You talk about the Christmas and goodwill. Where’s the goodwill towards the sub-postmasters here,” said Mrs Brown, from County Durham.
She said with the help of her government-paid advisors, multiple reports were prepared to back up her detailed claim.
More information was then requested by lawyers acting on behalf of the government which oversees the GLO scheme.
In Mrs Brown’s offer letter, she wasn’t awarded anything for loss of future earnings and was offered only a third of the amount she claimed for past loss of earnings.
She was also not awarded the full amount she claimed for harassment, even though the Department for Business and Trade acknowledged she had suffered harassment linked to issues with Horizon.
Mrs Brown said she couldn’t understand why one set of lawyers were being paid to carefully analyse and present her case only for another set of lawyers to then knock her claim down to a “paltry” 29%.
Lawyers representing the firms involved in delivering compensation were questioned by the Business and Trade Select Committee last month, amid complaints about the slow progress and complexity of the various schemes.
“We do try to maximise the offers. We do try to give the benefit of the doubt. We assess that and we are looking at fairness across the board,” Mark Chesher, a partner from Addleshaw Goddard, the law firm which assesses claims for GLO payouts told MPs.
Mrs Brown disagreed. “What they say and what they do are two different things.”
A government spokesperson said: “We recognise the immeasurable suffering that victims of the Horizon scandal like Betty have endured and we are working tirelessly across government to provide them with full and fair redress. “
“This government is settling claims at a faster rate than ever before. At the end of October, approximately £438m has been paid to over 3,100 claimants across four schemes, up 85% since the end of June. “
