Waiting for POCA 2
The last year has seen a substantial programme of post office closures – some 2,500 nationally – in order to make the network more sustainable in the face of many fewer customer visits and rapidly rising financial losses. As a member of the Council of Postwatch – the watchdog for postal customers which merged last week into Consumer Focus – I had to play a role in scrutinising this progamme, especially as it affected London, and arguing for modifications and changes.
But the post office network – even with the closure of one in five outlets – is far from safe and the earliest threat is also the largest: the award of a Government contract for the successor to the Post Office Card Account (POCA) which enables pensioners and other benefit claimants to obtain cash and other services.
Towards the end of an article in today’s “Daily Telegraph”, I am quoted for the first time in my capacity as a member of the Board of Consumer Focus. I point out that, if the new POCA contract is not awarded to the Post Office, there will inevitably be many more closures.
The problem is that the rival bidder to the Post Office is PayPoint which has more outlets – some 20,000. Therefore, if the contract is awarded to PayPoint or shared between the Post Office and PayPoint, it could be a good deal for consumers in the short term but will probably lead to more post office closures in the medium term.
Let’s see what the Government announces …