The Guardian has news of Labour’s further inconsistency in their plans for the Post Office network:
Lord Mandelson is urging the prime minister to save the Post Office network by allowing it to provide government services and financial products, according to a leaked letter seen by the Guardian.
Mandelson suggests that the current economic downturn and “recent events in the financial services” present an opportunity for the Post Office to take on a new range of tasks.
In the letter to Gordon Brown dated October 30 – sent less than a month after he rejoined the government – the business secretary says: “We should examine the prospects for POL [Post Office Ltd] becoming a much more significant player in financial services – offering a wider range of attractive products within easy reach of the whole population, available from an institution they can trust.”
Whatever next: Mandelson’s novel suggestion that Post Offices could provide a convenient local point to collect pensions, benefits and send parcels?
It’s only days since the Liberal Democrat motion to help ensure the future of the Post Office was voted down by Labour MPs.
Lib Dem Shadow Secretary for Work and Pensions, Jenny Willott MP spoke against the gradual erosion of Government services available from the Post Office:
The reason why post offices and Royal Mail Group have suffered such hits on their profits is that the Government are removing a wide range of services from the Post Office… In 2006, they announced that people could no longer pay for their television licences at post offices. In the same year, they told people who received their benefits and pensions through the Post Office card account that it was being withdrawn, and that they would have to open bank accounts to continue to receive their benefits. In 2008, the DVLA sent out reminder notices asking people to pay by direct debit, making no mention of the possibility of paying via the Post Office. Step by step, the Government are taking business away from the Post Office.
Jenny Willott highlighted the Government’s inconsistency, since the loss of the Post Office Card Account would make it more difficult for many to access pensions and benefits. She said that whilst the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) claims to be reorganising “the network so that it is financially viable, the DWP is doing all it can to undermine a valuable piece of business that the Post Office has.”
Liberal Democrats have called for £2 billion of investment in branches, paid for by selling part of the Government’s shareholding in Royal Mail. They also want more Government departments to use Post Offices to provide services, to free branches from restrictions on doing business with other parcel delivery companies and to broaden the range of commercial services available over their counters.
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One Comment
This is a really important story.
A friend who works for the Post Office tells me that if they loose the Post Office Card Account it will force the closure of another 6,000 post offices.
The only ‘local shop’ alternative is the PayPoint network (which already has the TV Licence contract) comprising mainly corner shops but these do not have adequate security to handle cash etc and the fee paid by the DWP is so tiny it would never be viable to retrofit security. No doubt this is why the DWP is trying to throw this business to the banks.
Moreover, the DWP plan does nothing for those who live in the poorly-banked areas where much of the need is concentrated – inner cities and rural areas in particular.
There just has to be a lot of local campaigning mileage in this.