Post Office Card account saved

Perhaps you have already heard the good news that the government recently announced that the Post Office Card Account (POCA) card is to remain with the Post Office? I just want to confirm the decision and to thank those residents who played their part in campaigning for this splendid result.

I have previously told you something of the problems that the postal service has been having in responding to changes in the economy and to technical innovations. In the last three years alone the number of people using post offices has fallen drastically and as a result the Post Office has been losing more than £4 million pounds each week. So something had to be done to stem the losses. Inevitably this led to the closure of many, much valued Post Office branches.

However, the Labour government has always recognised how important Post Offices are to communities and, unlike our Conservative predecessor, we have been prepared to use public money to help the Post Office to modernise. Even before yesterday’s announcement the government had provided £1.7 billion pounds to assist the network and now, in deciding not to give the POCA to the lowest bidder the government has listened to the public and recognised the social as well as the commercial importance of the Post Office.

Having previously set up and established the POCA account which is used by 4 million people every week (including 2 million pensioners) the Labour government has decided to keep the account where it belongs and to look for ways for it to grow and expand so that it assists even more people at this time of global economic crisis and when people have less reason to trust banks and the purely commercial sector.

In the next few months the government will be looking at how else we can assist ordinary people in their daily lives and how best to use the greatly loved and trusted Post Office network to do so.

If you have any further ideas about how you would like the Post Office to develop please let me know and thanks again for contacting me to help keep the POCA with the Post Office.