Post - the state of the sector

9 March 2023

Even in 2022, 500 years after they were established in the UK, our postal services remain a vital pillar of communication and retail. Most of us rely on post in many areas of our lives: to interact with government, stay in touch with friends and family, shop online and receive important documents, such as medical or legal letters.

As the statutory advocate, at Citizens Advice our role is to make sure postal services meet the needs of consumers and small- and medium-sized businesses. We do this by applying insights from our work with clients and consumer surveys. We’re here to make sure people, particularly those in vulnerable circumstances, get a fair deal and can easily access good value essential products and services.

This report reviews the state of the postal sector across England and Wales in 2022. Our data comes from calls to our Consumer Service helpline, views of online advice pages, local Citizens Advice cases and data from nationally representative consumer surveys.

This is our second annual report exploring the state of the postal sector. Our first report reviewed postal trends across 2021.