From July you will no longer be able to buy TV Licenses or TV License stamps at your local post office. Vehicle Excise Duty renewal notices are already being issued in envelopes urging renewal online or by telephone, with scant mention of the post office. This month the disabled have to visit the District Council for their Blue Badges rather than their local post office.
But the biggest threat by far, which postmasters genuinely fear puts their business at risk, comes from Ministers' decision to terminate the Post Office Card Account (POCA). From responses to my survey last month, two thirds of our post offices rely for over half of their income on customers using their POCA to draw their regular pension or benefits cash.
Withdrawal of this card without making good the income foregone would jeopardise the viability of virtually all the sub-post offices in our area. Closures would hit the most vulnerable - pensioners and those on welfare - the hardest.
Some pensioners are already receiving letters, and even threatening telephone calls, urging them to switch their POCA to a bank account for their pension.
I have provided petitions to all 48 post offices in the Ludlow constituency to raise awareness locally of what is at stake. If you want to support your local post office, I strongly encourage you to sign.
