Clause 23 - Payments
Tax Credits Bill
12:45 pm
Mr James Clappison (Hertsmere, Conservative)
I wish to set the amendment against the background of events surrounding the post office, to which the Bill represents an important development. When I say ''post office'', I mean the network of 17,000 sub-post offices throughout the country. Last year, I believe that we lost more than 500 of them; a question mark hangs over the future of many.
Many sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses are thinking hard about whether they will be able to continue in business. They are looking for anything that might help them to survive. They face the prospect of automated credit transfers coming into effect in April 2003. The Government led them to believe that the universal bank would be up and running by then.
That would have helped to offset the loss of revenue that they will suffer when ACT replaces the transactions that the Government paid them to administer, and the loss of custom from people coming through the sub-post offices. The amendments would provide some help to sub-post offices at a time when they need help.
Recent reports suggest that the universal bank will not be up and running by April 2003. It would be useful if the Minister commented on that. What are the Government's plans for the scale of the universal bank? How many account holders do the Government anticipate? That would be of great interest to sub-post offices. This week, a survey from Consignia, which has a commercial interest, stated that up to half of the sub-post offices in the country could close. Sub-postmasters and postmistresses are thinking long and hard about their future, and I am sure that they welcome the amendment's highlighting of their plight.