Royal Mail compensation rules as government says 'it has not been good enough'

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/co ... t-34603909



Royal Mail is under investigation for delivery failures - but compensation rules mean you could be entitled to a payment if your post is delayed

Royal Mail rules mean you could be entitled to compensation as the government criticises the postal service for delays. Andy Burnham's government is facing calls to hold Royal Mail management to account for failings after the organisation missed its first and second class delivery targets.

The organisation is currently under investigation by watchdog Ofcom for failing to meet delivery standards. And a minister this week described the situation as 'not good enough'.

The positive news for customers is that Royal Mail is required to follow compensation rules in certain circumstances. And that could result in you receiving payments for post that takes too long to reach its destination.

Royal Mail may pay compensation to either the sender or the recipient of a delayed item posted using products under this scheme where it has not delivered or attempted to deliver the item. This could happen three or more working days after the due date except where an item is redirected, using the Royal Mail Redirection Service; six or more working days after the due date for items redirected using the Royal Mail Redirection Service; 24 or more hours after the due date for Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm items (not posted on account).


In addition, a person "may also be eligible for substantial delay compensation" if the item has not been delivered or an attempt made to deliver seven or more working days after the due date. The issue came under the spotlight after John Slinger, Labour MP for Rugby, asked the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade about "what steps the Government is taking to hold Royal Mail senior management accountable for statutory delivery performance targets."

Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) - said in a response issued on Tuesday, September 8: "The government has been clear that Royal Mail's quality of service has not been good enough. The Government has discussed Royal Mail's performance with the company and Ofcom, as the independent regulator, and they know there is more to do to improve stability and reliability for customers, but it is welcome that the most recently released quality of service figures, for Q1 26/27, show an improvement.

"Ofcom has opened an investigation into Royal Mail's quality of service performance for 2025-26 and Royal Mail has published a quality of service improvement plan alongside a £500 million investment into frontline resourcing. The government will continue to press royal Mail for improvements in service quality."

First and second class mail delivery at Royal Mail
In June, Royal Mail released its annual delivery performance figures for the year ending March 2026, revealing that just 75.7% of First Class mail arrived the next working day — significantly below its then-target of 93%. Meanwhile, only 90.2% of Second Class mail was delivered within three working days — again falling considerably short of a 98.5% target.

Ofcom stated at the time that the update demonstrated delivery was falling "well short of targets". Ian Strawhorne, Enforcement Director at Ofcom, said: "A reliable postal service is vital to many people across the country. We share the deep frustrations of customers who have missed important letters because of Royal Mail's consistent failure to improve its service over the years.

"While the company is now making progress through its improvement plan, we will continue to hold it to account for its unacceptable performance to date. Ofcom expects Royal Mail to begin implementing the improvement plan immediately. This includes addressing the changing needs and expectations of customers in a transformed postal market.

"Twenty years ago, Royal Mail was delivering 20 billion letters in a year. That has now declined to 6.5 billion in 2025 and is expected to fall further in the coming years. Royal Mail has lost hundreds of millions of pounds in recent years, and so it must also become more efficient to meet these challenges."

You can read the full compensation rules on the Royal Mail website.

[Delbhoy]

twenty years ago Royal Mail was delivering 20 billion letters. frames were cleared daily .ok there wasn't as many parcels but mail was really heavy with achievable walks now you struggle to deliver a letter on a daily basis.

[Mr Rush]

twenty years ago Royal Mail was delivering 20 billion letters. frames were cleared daily .ok there wasn't as many parcels but mail was really heavy with achievable walks now you struggle to deliver a letter on a daily basis.

When duties were on foot the job had to be physically achievable. A long time ago it had to fit in one canvas bag, or from the late 80s on it had to fit in a limited number of pouch boxes with limited capacity. Park and Loop brought a cavernous expanse on wheels unbounded in space and time (or so management think) which enabled us to reach 'we're a parcel company now' - the root of all that has befallen the service.

The ever-increasing volume of packets and their wildly unpredictable attendance time all conspire to be a huge albatross to fulfilling the USO. They may well constitute more than half of RM's revenue now, but so long as the packets don't fit in a damn bag it makes no logical sense to say they pay for the continued fulfillment of the USO when they are delivered to the exclusion of the letters. I must reiterate: Tracked is not covered by the USO and therefore does not count towards provision.

I wholeheartedly believe Format 3+ packets cannot remain on core delivery, regardless of what that means for jobs. The quality of the job has been sacrificed for maintaining quantity, and in the end so many people the union purportedly saved from redundancy left of their own accord anyway! Since the strikes they can't find anyone who wants to fill their shoes. There's colleagues who'd prefer to deliver packets all day and there's those, like me, who'd prefer to deliver letters all day. Presently nobody is happy, including management.

[Delbhoy]

twenty years ago Royal Mail was delivering 20 billion letters. frames were cleared daily .ok there wasn't as many parcels but mail was really heavy with achievable walks now you struggle to deliver a letter on a daily basis.

When duties were on foot the job had to be physically achievable. A long time ago it had to fit in one canvas bag, or from the late 80s on it had to fit in a limited number of pouch boxes with limited capacity. Park and Loop brought a cavernous expanse on wheels unbounded in space and time (or so management think) which enabled us to reach 'we're a parcel company now' - the root of all that has befallen the service.

The ever-increasing volume of packets and their wildly unpredictable attendance time all conspire to be a huge albatross to fulfilling the USO. They may well constitute more than half of RM's revenue now, but so long as the packets don't fit in a damn bag it makes no logical sense to say they pay for the continued fulfillment of the USO when they are delivered to the exclusion of the letters. I must reiterate: Tracked is not covered by the USO and therefore does not count towards provision.

I wholeheartedly believe Format 3+ packets cannot remain on core delivery, regardless of what that means for jobs. The quality of the job has been sacrificed for maintaining quantity, and in the end so many people the union purportedly saved from redundancy left of their own accord anyway! Since the strikes they can't find anyone who wants to fill their shoes. There's colleagues who'd prefer to deliver packets all day and there's those, like me, who'd prefer to deliver letters all day. Presently nobody is happy, including management.

pretty much nails it.

[mafiaman]

This always happens ofcom investigate then royal mail given fine nothing happens and rm cover up alot of failure some how .who is the money go too should be given to charity or the hard working posties .To many cut backs unacceivable work loads there are sickness issues but it due too bully management style , workloads ,stress and fatigue.