Just a few weeks after Wyre Forest learnt that it is to lose four of its post offices, it now seems more are under threat. In a report published yesterday by the House of Commons Business and Enterprise Select Committee, details of the tender process for the Post Office Card Account (POCA) highlights potential losses for the Post Offices Ltd (POL).
The POCA was announced in 1999 as a way that the Government can distribute benefit payments and state pensions - especially to those people who do not have bank accounts. In 2010, the contract runs out for POL, and the Government introduced an open tender process for renewal of that contract. But, the long delay in the process has worried the Business and Enterprise committee and there are fears that POL has not won the contract, or has won it only in part.
Mark Garnier comments: "When the POCA was introduced, 4.3 million people took it up - a figure far higher than expected, and a figure that represents the number of people across the country who find it hard to open a bank account. These people are, by their nature, vulnerable and include 2.3 million pensioners and people who live in deprived urban areas. Importantly, they all have less access to transport.
"It is possible that a bank may win the tender for the distribution of pensions and benefits but for a rural pensioner, that could mean disaster. Just 4% of rural areas have a bank, whereas 60% have a post office. How is a rural pensioner without a car expected to get into the local town to pick up their pension after their local post office has closed?"
The Business and Enterprise Select Committee concludes that a further 3,000 post office branches could close across the country as a direct result of losing the contract for POCA (either in part or as a whole) - following on from the current 2,500 closed under the recent round of cuts. That implies a further 4 or five closures in Wyre Forest.