Thousands more post offices will be shut down if the Royal Mail fails to win a crucial benefits contract, it has been warned.
More than 2,500 branches have been axed in recent months as part of major Government cost-cutting programme.
But now another 3,000 are set for the chop within months if the Government ends the deal that gives the Post Office monopoly on paying pensions and benefits.
The Post Office Card Account (POCA) is used by millions of OAPs and the unemployed to pick up their payments and its guaranteed business is the only thing keeping the 3,000 post offices open.
However, the contract ends in 2010 and the Government is under increasing pressure from banks and building societies to slash its high-street presence to give them a share of the business.
More than 170 MPs have signed a Commons motion urging the Government to keep the contract with the Post Office.
But it looks likely they’ll announce in favour of giving it to PayPoint, which has 20,000 branches across the country, including inside supermarkets.
The Government has been warned that ending the POCA contract could mean the loss of at least 14,000 jobs nationwide.
Billy Hayes, head of the postal workers’ union, said: “If the Government does not award the contract to the Post Office, it could sound the death- knell for the country’s network of post offices.”
Filed under: Government, Jobs | Tagged: Benefits, Government, Royal Mail
