Thursday 13 November 2008

ASHOK KUMAR WELCOMES NEWS OF GOVERNMENT ‘LIFELINE FOR POST OFFICES’

Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP, Ashok Kumar, today (The 13th of November), welcomed the news that the Government had announced measures that would ensure that local Post Offices were to keep their existing benefits payment function.

James Purnell M.P., the Work and Pensions Secretary, today said that the Post Office will retain its £1bn five-year contract to distribute benefits to 4.3 million claimants. The Post Office Card Account (POCA), used by more than four million people, was designed to do away with the need for giros and payment books for pensioners and benefit claimants, while still allowing them to use Post Offices to collect money.

Ashok said 'This is great news for local Post Office in my constituency – especially those in rural parts of East Clevelandwho felt that they were under threat of closure if they lost this business to commercial providers. It will also come as a great relief to many pensioners the length and breadth of my constituency who were worried that they would have to be forced to switch accounts to shops and banks, and who they saw as more remote and impersonal."

"This news now also allows the government to build the Post Office network as what has been called a "trusted provider of a broader range of financial service". This news is a lifeline.  I hope this announcement will now be built on by Government, as over recent months it has become clear that many people implicitly trust the Post Office – much more so that the big banks"


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