Annex
FINANCIAL INCLUSION
1. The Committee invited us to explain in
more detail our presence in deprived areas, and the efforts we
are making to promote financial inclusion.
2. Post Office Ltd believe that the most
significant contribution that we can make towards overcoming financial
exclusion is by enabling consumers with basic bank accounts, or
current accounts of partner banks, to access (and pay in) their
money for free over the counter at any of our branches. Our network
of approximately 15,000 branches is larger than that of all of
the main banks and building societies put together, and we have
a much higher presence in deprived areas than other financial
institutions. For example, there are 1,125 Post Office branches
in the 10% most deprived wards, as identified for England in the
Index of Multiple Deprivation produced by the Office of the Deputy
Prime Minister (ODPM), and the equivalent lists produced by various
authorities covering Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Over
93% of the population of the UK live within one mile of a Post
Office branch. In urban areas this rises to 99% within one mile,
and in rural areas 84% of the population live within a mile of
a Post Office branch. Only 4% of villages have a bank or building
society, yet 60% have a Post Office.
3. As we advised the Committee, we do take
into account the level of deprivation of an area when planning
our network. We use the Indices of Multiple Deprivation for England,
and the equivalent systems for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
to classify branches as being in deprived areas. We have worked
with the ODPM, the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Executive to
secure funding specifically for branches in urban deprived areas.
4. HM Treasury have not shared with us their
list of postcodes where there is concentrated financial exclusion.
However, we believe that this list is also based on the Indices
of Multiple Deprivation, and therefore we do not expect that this
list would differ significantly to our own.
5. Post Office Ltd has substantial experience
of providing products and services that promote financial inclusion.
Our products include general purpose savings stamps, TV Licence
savings stamps, and bill payment services—Car Tax, Council
Tax, rent payments, TV Licencing etc Post Office Ltd handles approximately
400 million bill payment transactions per annum. We also provide
Postal Orders, useful for people who need to send a cheque but
do not have access to a bank account. We offer Basic Bank Accounts
access to customers of 17 banks and building societies—these
are specifically targeted at those on low incomes. There are also
over 3.7 million people who have opted to have their benefit payments
paid into a Post Office Card Account.
6. We are introducing, a range of good-value,
straightforward, easily understood financial services, providing
wide geographic access through a trusted brand. Above all, the
existence of such an extensive branch network means that we have
staff or agents located across the country who are able to provide
help to our customers where this is required.
7. We believe that financial inclusion is
about enabling all sections of the community to access financial
services. To this end we are actively working on enhancing our
facilities, so that people with physical disabilities are well
catered for in our branches. For example, we have improved the
design of our Pin Pads to make these easier to use by people with
visual impairment, and over 90% of our directly managed branches
are accessible by wheelchair users. We have also produced a booklet,
in conjunction with the Employers Forum on Disability, designed
to help people with learning disabilities do their banking at
our branches. We have produced and distributed 1m copies of this
leaflet.
8. We are also in discussions with the Financial
Services Authority on how we can work together to promote financial
literacy. We are also actively seeking to input to the work of
the HM Treasury Financial Inclusion Task Force.
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