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<p>Government committed in its 2017 manifesto to safeguard the Post Office network
and protect existing rural services, recognising the important role post offices play
in serving their communities. The Government promotes access to rural post offices
by setting accessibility criteria which the Post Office must meet. This ensures that
in rural areas over 95% of people are within 3 miles of their nearest post office
service. In remote and rural areas where it is difficult to deliver services to consumers
via a permanent site, Post Office Limited use outreach services, such as a mobile
van, or a village hall. These offer the same products and services as bricks-and-mortar
branches.</p><p> </p><p>In recent years the Government has provided over £2bn investment
into the Post Office which has seen over 7700 branches modernised, many thousands
in rural areas. Having a modern accessible network enables the Post Office to secure
and deliver services for customers, such as banking, bill payment and mails services,
across the whole network, including rural areas, where in many cases the post office
is the last shop in the village.</p><p> </p><p>The contract for the Post Office Card
Account (POca) is a commercial matter for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
and Post Office Limited (POL). The contract will come to an end on 30 November 2021.
DWP is working with Post Office Limited (POL) to prepare POca users for this by undertaking
a project to move significant volumes of existing POca service users onto a mainstream
bank account. Those POca customers who transition to a mainstream account will still
be able to access their pension and benefit payments via the post office. <br> <br>
For claimants who are unable to open a mainstream account ahead of this date, DWP
will implement an alternative payment service that allows users to obtain cash payments
whatever their location before the end of the contract.</p>
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