Post Offices 'Still Not Safe' Warns MP

Thursday, 12 June 2008

Southport's MP John Pugh has warned local residents that even more of the town's post offices could be facing the axe this summer. The Lib Dem MP has been contacted by several local postmasters who are concerned that the Government may be planning to take away yet another one of the services they provide - a move which could force some out of business altogether.

The Post Office Card Account (POCA) is a simple way for people to receive benefits, state pensions, and tax credit payments. No credit checks are required to open an account, and it's impossible for people to either go overdrawn or incur charges when using it. Over 4 million people currently use the account - including hundreds in Southport - and it's estimated that a quarter of the 24 million visits made to post offices every week are by POCA customers.

The DWP however recently put the scheme out to tender, and have so far refused to guarantee that it will be awarded to the post office when they make a decision on its future in the summer. The National Federation of SubPostmasters has warned that should the contract to run the scheme be lost, then up to 3,000 post offices could be forced to shut - a danger Dr Pugh has described as "very real":

"We were told during the last round of closures that they were being made as the branches weren't profitable" he said this morning, "and yet it is the Government's actions - such as taking away schemes like POCA - that are making it so hard to run Post Offices as successful businesses. This has been pointed out to the Government time and time again, but they don't want to listen.

It's a pattern we've seen before; they take services away, then close branches down - and now they're trying it again."

The MP argues that the recent closure of 2 of Southport's Post Offices is already having an effect, with customers regularly facing long queues at the main branch on Lord Street. Having already contacted Post Office management about this issue, he is now writing to local postmasters to assure them that he is well aware of the latest threat to their businesses.

Dr Pugh has assured postmasters that he plans to do his utmost to support efforts to retain the POCA scheme, and with this in mind, he is now eager to spread the word about what is at stake:

"Too often in these situations campaigns start only after the decisions have been made. It's vital that people start putting pressure on the Government now, in order to let them know that they wont stand for their post offices being hung out to dry."

"Taking the POCA scheme away from the Post Office amounts to nothing more than closures by stealth. If people don't make their voices heard now, we will in all likelihood by facing another raft of closures in the summer."

"People should be able to continue claiming their pensions and benefits at the Post  Office, it's as simple as that. If the Government are allowed to get away with taking this provision away from our Post Offices, then they will severely undermine the financial viability of thousands of branches.

People wont just lose the ability to receive their pension at their local branch, they could lose the branch altogether.

The only way to ensure this doesn't happen is to make the Government know that they won't stand for it. Gordon Brown has shown that he will back down over issues like the 10p tax rate; now people need to make him back down again - before community Post Offices become a thing of the past."