UK postal compensation rules as Royal Mail service labelled 'not good enough'

Royal Mail rules mean you could be owed compensation as the government this week criticised the postal service over delays. Andy Burnham's government is facing pressure to hold Royal Mail bosses accountable for shortcomings after the organisation fell short of its first and second class delivery targets.

Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) - responded this week, stating: "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."

The organisation is currently being investigated by regulator Ofcom for failing to meet delivery standards, with a minister this week branding the situation 'not good enough'. The good news for customers is that Royal Mail is obliged to stick to compensation rules under certain conditions, which could see you receiving payouts for post that takes too long to arrive at 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:

Furthermore, a person "may also be eligible for substantial delay compensation" should their item remain undelivered, or no delivery attempt made, seven or more working days beyond the expected date.

The matter was put into the spotlight after John Slinger, Labour MP for Rugby, questioned the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade regarding "what steps the Government is taking to hold Royal Mail senior management accountable for statutory delivery performance targets."

The complete compensation rules can be found on the Royal Mail website .