THE Government has been accused of bamboozling the elderly into opening bank accounts rather than continuing to receive their pension at a post office.
Martin O'Neill, the Labour chairman of a Commons committee condemned the "unnecessary, complicated and confusing" red tape involved in setting up a new Post Office Card Account.
He claimed that it was part of a deliberate campaign to discourage pensioners from receiving their cash at a post office because it cost the Govern-ment more.
The proportion of pensioners currently using a pension book varies from 50.5 per cent in the North Swindon constituency to 49.2 per cent in South Swindon. They are about to receive letters urging them to choose direct payment into a bank or building society account, or a new-style post office account. The payment of pensions and benefits into bank accounts threatens to send vulnerable sub-post offices to the wall.
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