Trial will deliver a blow for the future

From the archive, first published Monday 6th Mar 2006.

Dear editor - regarding postmasters' fears for their customers and themselves in the article on the future of rural post offices, I would take issue with the statement in that article given by the spokesman for the Department for Works and Pensions (DWP).

The department's `trial to minimise disruption to post office business and their customers' would give the following problems to all pension and benefit claimants: 1. For all new applicants there will be no choice of a post office card option. 2. Post office card account customers will be forced, without choice, into opening either a bank or building society account. 3. Customers who have opted to use a post office card account, in preference to their bank account, will be forced, without choice, to close their card account. If the DWP trial is successful, rural communities will not even have a post office in which to process banking transactions. Finally, if the post office card account was supposed to be a temporary measure, why did the Government use the word `cornerstone' in their earlier statements regarding the future of rural post office network, thereby assuring our customers of continued choice? What has changed their minds, and why?

John Murphy Postmaster, Kilgetty and Tenby Post Office; vice-president, Welsh Regional Council National Federation of Sub Postmasters.

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