| Pensioners Left Footing Bill for Payment Changes |
| Monday, 23 June 2008 | |
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As the battle to safeguard the future of Southport's Post Offices continues, the town's MP has been contacted by dozens of local residents left furious by United Utilities insistence that they now have to pay a charge for the privilege of paying their own water bill.
United Utilities recently wrote to hundreds of local people to inform them that come July 1st they would no longer be able to pay their bill for free at their local Post Office. Such a move would leave users of the Post Offices Card Account - a popular bank account that does not allow users to incur charges or become overdrawn - to pay a fee of £2.35 every time they wished to pay their bill at their local branch. One Ainsdale pensioner who received such a letter was informed that her nearest outlet was the local Bargain Booze. Reluctant in the first place to change a trip to the Post Office to one to the local budget off-license, insult was added to injury when the pensioner (who does not wish to be named) was informed by Bargain Booze that they knew nothing about the scheme, and had no way to process her bill payments. Other residents meanwhile have reported being directed to a local Estate Agents, who have reportedly been "inundated" with residents phoning up to ask about their water bill. The pensioner brought the matter to the attention of John Pugh - who had already been contacted by several other people over this issue - and the MP immediately wrote to United Utilities to seek an explanation. In their reply they again make the claim that users of the Post Office account can pay their bill for free at one of 21 "Payzone" outlets - such as those found in Bargain Booze - located across the town. Documents passed to the Lib Dem MP however have revealed that Bargain Booze themselves are furious at the move, and have written to United Utilities informing them that they have "no intention" to process bill payments, whilst demanding that the proposals be reversed. This means that hundreds of local people are now being told to pay their water bill at locations where they will be turned away, whilst the Post Office faces losing yet another vital service. Dr Pugh describes the situation as "ridiculous": "United Utilities claim in their letter to me that they researched this proposal thoroughly before implementing it, but apparently this research didn't extend to actually making sure that the outlets they were directing people to would process their bill payments. "People don't want to have to go to places like Bargain Booze to pay their bills, the Post Office don't want to lose another service, and we now know that Bargain Booze don't want anything to do with this ridiculous scheme either. "In short, United Utilities have taken a system that was working perfectly well and created a situation where every single party involved is now unhappy. It's nothing short of madness." |