Post office `lifeline to countryside threatened' 4 deck yes

Widespread poverty in rural areas has been exacerbated by a serious decline in postal services, a report warns today. It says further closures of post offices would cut off an "essential lifeline" for millions of people.

The report, from the National Association of Citizens' Advice Bureaux, calls on the Government to halt the piecemeal closure of rural sub-post offices and maintain the network at its present level of about 10,000.

Although the privatisation of the Post Office has been abandoned, its future remains uncertain. However, many sub-post offices are threatened by plans to pay benefits directly into bank or building society accounts, rather than through post offices.

Based on evidence from 125 CABs and a survey of more than 2,000 CAB clients, the report says that post offices perform a "vital role" in helping people who are hardest hit by the higher cost of living and lack of basic facilities in rural areas. Of those taking part in the survey, 70 per cent were on benefit, more than one-third lacked a car and a quarter did not have a bank account.

Almost half of those questioned said that they relied on the local post office to pay at least one of their household bills.

Of those on benefit or on pensions, 87 per cent collected them from the post office. More than half found it an important source of information and most used it for essential shopping and to keep in touch with village life.

Women with children, pensioners and disabled people were most likely to depend upon the rural post office for services that would otherwise be inaccessible to them.

"Poor public transport and tight weekly budgets often put banks and regular travel to the nearest town beyond reach," the report says.

In the mid-1980s, it says, it was estimated that a quarter of rural households lived in poverty or at the margins of it and the incidence of poverty was increasing. Sixty per cent of parishes have no primary school and 74 per cent no GP practice.

Rural post offices lose about £30m a year but are subsidised by the more profitable urban network. Many also operate as the village shop and have been badly hit by the rise of out-of-town shopping.

Ann Abraham, chief executive of the NACAB, said: "For many people struggling against all the odds to manage on very little money, the sub-post office is the one remaining lifeline in areas where most other basic facilities have already disappeared.

"The Government has recently expressed its commitment to the future of rural communities. As part of this commitment, it should recognise the role of the post office at the heart of the community and invest in the future of the post office network."

The report says the social implications of the Benefits Agency's drive to reduce costs through direct transfers to recipients' bank accounts have not been recognised. It wants post offices to be modernised so they can compete for Benefits Agency work. They should be able to offer more services.

tRural Benefits, CAB evidence on the role of post offices in rural communities; National Association of Citizens' Advice Bureaux, 115-123 Pentonville Road, London N1 9LZ; £6.50.