Commercial and Finance Support Officer
| Posting date: | 27 May 2025 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £34,254 to £39,994 per year |
| Additional salary information: | National: £34,254 to £36,142 London: £38,138 to £39,994 |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 10 June 2025 |
| Location: | Birmingham |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Temporary |
| Job reference: | 407492/2 |
Summary
After a long fight in the High Court, a group of 555 postmasters revealed the truth about what happened. The case showed that Horizon was flawed and that the Post Office had acted unfairly. The Courts subsequently overturned over 100 convictions: in an unprecedented move, Parliament has recently overturned hundreds more. The Department for Business and Trade is now paying hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation to those affected. A Statutory Inquiry is finding out what went wrong, so that lessons are learned to ensure it can never happen again.
In 2020, the Post Office established the Horizon Shortfall Scheme to provide compensation to current and former un-convicted postmasters who suffered losses as a result of the Horizon Scandal. In September 2024, the Government announced a new independent appeals process, overseen by the Department for Business and Trade, for postmasters in the Horizon Shortfall Scheme for who feel their financial settlement did not reflect the true extent of their losses. This is known as Horizon Shortfall Scheme Appeals (HSSA).
In March 2023, Government launched the GLO Compensation Scheme in order to ensure that those postmasters who took part in the original High Court case had access to similar levels of compensation as their peers. The scheme has settled over 300 out of the c.500 claims expected, but there remains much to do.
The GLO and HSSA Delivery Team are strongly motivated and highly committed to delivering results. The work is interesting, high profile and fast-paced, including responding to very regular interest from both Houses of Parliament and to regular scrutiny in the media. The work – and the responsibilities of individual posts – evolve over time: as we deliver against one challenge, the next presents itself.
The team works closely with stakeholders and delivery partners (including the Post Office) to ensure that victims receive compensation swiftly and fairly.
The post holder will join the HSSA and GLO Delivery Team to support to the G7 Commercial and Finance Lead. The post holder's primary responsibility will be to lead the payment process across both schemes, whilst supporting commercial and finance workstreams.
You will:
- Work across GLO and HSSA schemes to lead the payment process, ensuring claimants are paid promptly and accurately, whilst also ensuring that departmental records are up-to-date and robust.
- Work with analysts and finance leads to support the management of the Schemes operational budget and to produce financial forecasts.
- Support financial reporting, producing updates for senior officials and inputting on external data publications.
- Support the contract manager to ensure effective management of contracts with legal and other delivery agents, including robustly scrutinising fees.
- Work with the G7 to ensure processes and policies are suitable to enable prompt payment of compensation.
- Become a key point of contact, building strong relationships with range of stakeholders, both internally and externally, including DBT Finance, contractors, claimant legal representatives, and payment delivery partners.
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