Disappointment over post office cheques move

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VULNERABLE and elderly individuals will no longer be able to receive pension and benefit payments by cheque at the post office after the Government moved the contract to a major bank.

Subpostmasters have expressed "bitter disappointment" over the decision, which removes the service after 43 years.

The benefits cheque service – commonly known as Green Giros – allows about 350,000 people to receive payments by cashing a cheque at their local post office each week.

About 60,000 users are pensioners and 38,000 are on Disability Living Allowance.

A new system will come in from 2012, using Paypoint outlets managed by international firm Citibank in a contract worth about £20 million a year.

Pensioners in the Westcountry have warned that, for many, the welfare cheque system is "vital," while postmasters raised fears the move may reduce footfall to already struggling outlets.

Campaigner Sylvia Hardy, of the Devon Pensioners' Action Forum, uses the cheque service and said the move was "very bad news."

"I've never once had a problem with it," she said. "As well as preferring the system to cards, I use it because it means I'm supporting my local post office. They are going to die out if things keep being taken away from them."