Readers may be aware of worries about the Government's changes to the way benefits are paid.

Since April, some people have been unable to collect their pension or benefits in cash at their local post offices.

They have to have the money paid into a bank account, or to open a Post Office card account and then withdraw the cash.

But the Government has made it too difficult for people to open these Post Office accounts.

This new system will apply to everyone within the next two years.

It will put local post offices under threat because some people will stop using their counter services and stop shopping there.

It will also make life more difficult for many of the most vulnerable in our communities and the arrangements for relations or friends to collect benefits for them are inadequate. So far, almost 40 per cent of those asked by the Government to move to the new system have not done so.

It is not clear what is to become of them when their order books are withdrawn.

It should be made easier to open a Post Office card account and special arrangements should be in place to meet the needs of vulnerable people.

If your readers are concerned about this issue, I would ask them to please write to me at Conservative Central Office, 32 Smith Square, London SW1P 3HH.

Oliver Heald MP

Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions