Welcome for Government u-turn on Post Office Card Account

6.31.24am GMT Tue 18th Nov 2008

Save our Post Offices

LIBERAL Democrats across the Fylde have welcomed a decision by the Government to abandon proposals to hand over the payment of pensions and benefits from Post Offices to a private company. Thousands of elderly people, carers, disabled people and claimants in Fylde currently use their local post offices to receive their pensions and benefits through the Post Office Card Account.

But earlier this year ministers invited bids from private companies as well as the Post Office for the contract to pay out pensions and benefits from 2010. Had the Post Office lost the contract, up to 6,000 more post offices could have gone to the wall as a result of the lost business. These 'unmanaged' closures would have been in addition to the 2,500 "managed" closures which the Government has already announced.

"The Government's u-turn is welcome here in Fylde," says Cllr. Tony Ford, "It means our Post Offices have a better chance of staying open to provide local services for local people."

Campaigns against closures continue

This is a u-turn that should never have had to happen in the first place. The Government should have realised the importance of post offices to communities and awarded the new contract to the network without these months of delay. Instead, local branches have had to deal with the uncertainty that ministerial dithering and unnecessary contracting processes has caused.

"When I moved to St Annes in 1989 there were Post Offices on Caryl Road and on Kilnhouse Lane," added Cllr. Ford. More than a third of the Post Offices have closed across the Fylde, many of which were important parts of the local community. Hopefully, the remaining local branches can now plan ahead knowing they will continue to pay out pensions and benefits."

If the Government had adopted Liberal Democrats plans for the Post Office then they would be able to invest an additional £2 billion in the network and safeguard the future of local post offices for years to come.

Whilst some local Conservatives are busy claiming to have saved local Post Offices they conveniently forget to mention then when they were in power they were also responsible for thousands of Post Office closures.

"The Conservatives have nothing to offer our Post Offices, only the Liberal Democrats have a fully-funded plan to save the Post Office."

But Liberal Democrats are also calling on the Government to carry out another u-turn.

"They must stop putting pressure on pensioners and benefit claimants to get their cash paid through the banks. People should have a choice," commented Ashton Ward Councillor Tony Ford.

For further information on the Lib Dem plan to save the post office network see http://www.libdems.org.uk/commerce/issues/postoffice.html.