SUMMARY
 The Post Office Network ( 420kb)
1. The Post Office network plays a number of incredibly important roles for CAB clients, many of whom are among the most vulnerable members of society. This is particularly the case for those who live in rural or urban deprived areas where alternatives, such as access to basic financial services, may be limited or non-existent.
2. Recent surveys conducted by the CAB service reveal how Post Offices are currently used, and give a full account of what CAB clients and the public value about the Post Office. A summary of the key points from the surveys is given in the text-box on page three.
3. Any reduction in the number of Post Offices will hit the most vulnerable groups hard – an overwhelming 98% of CAB advisers consider vulnerable people in their community would suffer if their local Post Office were to close. Closures would also have a profound impact on the wider community and the viability of local businesses.
4. Government policy in this area has been muddled. The ability of DTI to afford to support the network has been undermined by decisions taken by other government departments to change methods of distribution to reduce costs – decisions which have also reduced Post O ffice income. Going forward, it is essential that government – at both national and local levels – recognises the many and varied roles played by the Post Office and takes a joined-up approach in considering how to revitalise the Post Office network.
5. We welcome the commitment that government will replace the Post Office Card Account (POca) with a new account after 2010. The new product must not repeat the POca’s shortcomings, but should meet the needs of account holders in relation to both its product features and the support provided.
6. If it is decided that some closures are unavoidable, the access criteria must not simply be based on distance and geography. A range of other factors such as availability of public transport, effect on the local economy, alternative access to basic services and socio-economic factors such as age, health and deprivation must be taken into account.
7. The consultation implies that the access criteria distance requirements might be averaged out, rather than having to be met in each individual postcode district. National averaging in this way would generate a postcode lottery, with access to Post Office services in many postcode districts falling far below the acceptable national average for that area type.
8. Thirty eight postcode areas will continue to be exempt from meeting the rural access criteria. This effectively means that they will be denied the protection given to other rural postcode districts. It is of particular concern that 37 of the 38 districts are in Scotland, meaning that significant numbers of remote communities in Scotland will not be afforded the same protections as the rest of the UK.
9. ‘Outreach services’ are preferable to branch closures but these must meet customers’ needs in terms of opening hours, location and services offered. Their potential application in urban areas should also be considered.
10. DTI’s proposals represent a radical overhaul of the Post Office network. It is therefore imperative that decisions are taken only after meaningful consultation with those who will be most affected by change. At present, the timescales proposed for decisions to be reached at both national and local level are wholly inadequate and are likely to lead to sub-optimal decisions about the network being made.
11. Each potential closure must be considered in detail so that its effects on the local community can be thoroughly assessed. Post Office Ltd should be required to consult local community groups, particularly those representing vulnerable people who are likely to be hardest hit by closures or changes to the provision of Post Office services, as part of any local consultation.
12. Closures of individual offices cannot be left to the commercial discretion of Post Office Ltd alone. Structural changes must be driven by consideration of community and social need, or it will be the most vulnerable groups that suffer. Setting generic access criteria and the parameters of any closure programme should not be the full extent of government’s role.
| Summary of Adviceguide Survey results: |
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- Thirty nine per cent of respondents visit the Post Office several times a week or more. This rises to 47% amongst those receiving means-tested benefits and 50% amongst people aged over 65
- If the Post Office they use most often were to close, ninety one per cent said they would personally be significantly affected or quite affected and 95% cent said their community would be significantly affected or quite affected
- Eighty five per cent of respondents value the convenient location of Post Offices, with helpful counter staff (73%), the range of products/services (64%) and the trustworthy name (63%) also ranking highly
- Fifty nine per cent of people felt the Post Office acted as a centre of the community. This rose to 74% of people living in rural communities
- Postal services are used by 96% of respondents. Other key services include paying car tax (63%), collecting official forms (55%) and buying other items such as groceries (52%)
- The majority of people (74%) currently walk to the Post Office branch they use most often
- Closure of their local branch would mean that only 14% of people would be able to continue to walk to their nearest branch – a figure which falls to only 4% among rural respondents
- Eighty per cent of respondents stated that, if the branch they used most often were to close, they would get the services they currently use at another Post Office
- Forty nine per cent said that it would cost them significantly more to travel to another branch, rising to 62% among rural respondents
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| Summary of Adviser Survey results: |
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- Ninety seven per cent of advisers felt that vulnerable people in the community would suffer if the local Post Office were to close
- Advisers most frequently cited the convenient location (95%) and the important community role (88%) as positive features of the Post Office for CAB clients
- Ninety eight per cent of advisers stated that CAB clients use the Post Office for postal services, with 95% stating that CAB clients collect their benefit income, and 93% considering that clients used the Post Office to pay bills
- If the local Post Office were to close, 75% of advisers felt this would reduce custom for nearby business with 56% stating that it might actually put the future of local businesses at risk
- Ninety nine per cent of advisers felt that closure of a local Post Office branch is a bad idea
- Of the possible alternative means of providing Post Office services, 75% felt that partnerships with community organisations such as pubs are a good idea, 57% felt that a mobile Post Office is a good idea and 47% felt that reduced opening hours are a good idea
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INTRODUCTION
13. The UK CAB service is the largest network of independent advice centres in Europe, providing high quality, free, independent and impartial advice. It comprises Citizens Advice England & Wales, Citizens Advice Northern Ireland and Citizens Advice Scotland. The CAB service also runs an advice website,  www.adviceguide.org.uk, which received 4.3 million visits in 2005/06.
14. The CAB service delivers advice from over 3,600 locations in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. In addition to the comprehensive network of high street CAB offices located across the UK – from urban city centres to isolated rural communities – we also offer an extensive system of outreach services in locations ranging from doctors’ surgeries and schools, to prisons, courts and community venues.
15. During 2005/06, the UK CAB service helped people deal with just under six million new problems - 4,990,000 in England, 258,000 in Wales, 252,000 in Northern Ireland and 442,550 in Scotland.
16. The CAB service has two equal aims:
- to ensure that individuals do not suffer through lack of knowledge of their rights and responsibilities or of the services available to them, or through an inability to express their needs effectively;
and equally
- to exercise a responsible influence on the development of social policies and services, both locally and nationally.
17. CAB clients are often disadvantaged and many are on low incomes or benefits, or are disadvantaged in some way. For example, research by MORI for Citizens Advice England & Wales found that CAB users tend to be in social grades DE and unemployed, or living in social housing.1
HOW WE COMPILED THIS RESPONSE
18. This response has been jointly written by Citizens Advice England & Wales, and Citizens Advice Scotland.
19. The CAB service has a network of bureaux which reaches into almost every corner of the UK. Our response is based on the actual experiences of CAB clients, anonymised and presented as client case evidence. This is made possible by the CAB service’s social policy feedback mechanism by which bureaux across the UK highlight the problems in their area by sending in specific case examples that are indicative of wider issues.
20. To reflect the views of the wider CAB service in our response to the DTI’s consultation on the Post Office network, we undertook two additional pieces of questionnaire-based research:
- The Adviser Survey - this was issued to CAB advisers and asked for their thoughts about the services and products that the Post Office network offers to CAB clients, the strengths of the network, its failings, and, perhaps most importantly of all, what the future of the Post Office network should be (see Appendix 1).
- The Adviceguide Survey – this was a public survey on our Adviceguide website (www.adviceguide.org.uk ) during January 2007. It asked members of the public about the Post Office services they use, what they value about post offices, how they personally would be affected if their local branch were to close, and what impact it would have on the community in which they live (see Appendix 2).
21. The comments received from both surveys have been fed directly into this response, and enable us to make the case for a Post Office network that meets CAB clients’ needs.
22. In total, we received 950 responses from 251 bureaux to the Adviser Survey. Such a massive response gives a clear indication of the essential role that many bureau advisers consider the local Post Office currently plays, demonstrates the strength of CAB advisers’ feeling about proposals to reform or close Post Office branches and highlights the impact that they consider closures will have on CAB clients.
23. These responses are supplemented by the findings of the Adviceguide Survey, which was completed by 1,052 people. The vast majority of these completed the survey on-line, although a number of bureaux printed off the survey and asked clients to fill it in manually whilst they were waiting to be seen by an adviser.
24. Summaries of the results from both the Adviser Survey and the Adviceguide Survey are provided on page three. We also make use of the results from these surveys throughout our response, as well as referring to an additional survey completed by 187 rural subpostmasters which was conducted by Citizens Advice’s Rural Bureaux Network (which brings together rural bureaux across England and Wales).
The Post Office Network ( 420kb)
1. Financial Overcommitment, research study conducted for Citizens Advice by MORI, July 2003
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