Comment: Pensioners face counter attack

The Department of Works and Pensions has decided it wants people to receive their pensions and benefit payments by post. Those who want to continue to collect their payments in cash at a post office will have to call a helpline. They will then be interviewed, before being issued with a "personal invitation document" to present at a post office.

The official reasons for this rigmarole are to ensure security and prevent fraud, as callers will be asked questions to establish their identity.

But the process will also be used to push the preferred option, of payment directly into a bank account. So-called basic bank accounts are offered by all the main banks, and money can be withdrawn in cash at post offices or from cash machines. There are also Post Office card accounts that provide a swipe card for use with the new PIN-pads installed at post office counters - a four-digit PIN provides security. Pensioners I have spoken to are, of course, concerned that they will forget their PIN numbers.

Millions of people will be affected by this gradual change over the next few years. The changeover is likely to cost the Post Office £400m per annum in lost revenue. Benefit payments, including the state pension, currently account for 40 percent of the turnover of an average sub-post office. The £15m fund announced by the Regeneration Minister in December to help keep post offices open in England's most deprived urban areas will not go very far to combat the loss of this business. The fund is meant to enable sub-postmasters to maintain, modernise and expand branches by creating new facilities, such as bakeries or greengrocers, better security, updated IT or shop alterations.

Apart from the prospect of very old people being confused and worried, holding up queues while they try to find their PIN, there is the question of how the call centre will be able to respond to their phone calls. According to a report on using call centres to deliver public services, issued by the National Audit Office in December, younger people are more likely than older people to use such facilities. A large percentage of people are unwilling to use call centres because they prefer to deal with someone in person. Anyone who has tried to ring their bank and, after being told how valued a customer they are, been left on hold for an age, cannot fail to see how this might upset someone not used to this form of frustration.

At the risk of being labelled a Luddite, I cannot help feeling angry.

No part of this plan has anything to do with improving services for the public. Presumably the Benefits Agency will cut costs. Banks will gain more customers, but not in a valuable way. Anyone who has ever relied on benefits knows that all the cash is needed at once. Benefits are not high enough to allow savings.

Surely IT should instead be used to enhance the quality of life for people, not just to make administrative savings.

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