Post Office row

He states that from 2003, consumers will have the opportunity to have their benefits paid directly into banks or building societies, including accounts that can be used at the Post Office.

This opportunity exists now and it is not the Liberal Democrats who are wanting to deny people the right to have benefit payments paid direct into bank accounts, but the Labour Government who propose to deny people their choice to have their benefits paid in cash direct from a Post Office, rather than via a bank account.

As a sub-postmaster, I, along with my fellow sub-postmasters and our millions of customers, merely want the current arrangements to remain, whereby our customers would retain their choice as to whether their benefit is paid into a bank account or not. I have written to Mr Watts and detailed to him how a sub-postmaster's income will be affected if the Government's proposals are implemented. I am not "feeding the press a story to frighten old people into believing that they will lose their post office." I am stating the facts, which are, that a postmaster is not paid a fixed salary. We are self-employed business owners and are paid for each item of work we transact across our counters.

If we lose 50 per cent of our business (at the minimum) how are we to remain viable? How will we meet our costs? Staff wages? Loan repayments?

Would Mr Watts want to run a business at a loss? No! Therefore post offices will close.

Mr Watts chooses to ignore the facts and appears to be just following the party line. I appeal to people not to be fooled by false assurances from the Government/Benefits Agency and to continue to join sub-postmasters in our campaign for the right to choose.

Terry Pigott, sub-postmaster, Wargrave Post Office, Newton.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.