A Liverpool mum said she became homeless after being wrongfully convicted of stealing £3,000.
Lisa Brennan, from Huyton, was falsely convicted of the theft due to errors in a computer system at work.
The former Post Office counter clerk, is among more than 700 subpostmasters and subpostmistresses (SPMs) prosecuted based on information from the Horizon IT system, installed and maintained by Fujitsu between 2000 and 2014.
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Despite pleading not guilty in 2003 she was still convicted of the crime and left with a criminal record.
Lisa was able to avoid jail but the mum said the ruling was the "end" of her world, leading to financial difficulty and the end of her marriage.
In December 2019 a High Court judge found that the Horizon IT system contained a number of "bugs, errors and defects" and there was a "material risk" that shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts were caused by the system.
Lisa said: "All I'd ever known from the age of 16 was the Post Office and then just to be told 'you're a thief' is horrible."
After the conviction, Ms Brennan tried to take her own life after hitting rock bottom.
Lisa added: "I had to sell the house, I couldn't afford the mortgage.
"I stayed at my mum's on the couch and my daughter Jess just had the spare room - I was sofa surfing."
She described relying on family members for food, and would often go hungry so her daughter could eat, adding: "It's scandalous, it should never have happened.
"I wasn't the only one but that's what I was told: 'It's only you, you're the only one.'
"I remember them (Post Office investigators) saying that: 'It's only you."'
An inquiry, which is expected to run for the rest of this year, is looking into whether the Post Office knew about faults in the IT system and will also ask how staff were made to take the blame.
Jason Beer QC, counsel to the inquiry, said during his opening that the ordeal of those affected could be concluded as "the worst miscarriage of justice in recent British legal history."
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