The Post Office has been criticised after it reportedly slashed exit payments for 'hard to place' postmasters who attempt to leave the profession. People in charge of the affected branches have been asked "how they would like to proceed with regards to their Post Office", and a branch near Bristol has been named as one of those impacted.
The Post Office Ltd began a programme called Network Transformation in 2011, which was designed to modernise the service and delivery models provided. For those subpostmasters who did not want to change their contract to one of the new operating models, provision was made in the form of an 18-month ’leavers' payment‘.
In 2014 the money was increased to 26 months due to the programme becoming compulsory. Each subpostmaster had to decide by December 2015 as to whether they wished to convert to one of the new operating models or exit the network. Those who did not sign were asked to sign a conditional resignation form, enabling them to leave the network with their leavers' payment once a new subpostmaster was found.
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However, the Post Office Ltd has now reportedly written to subpostmasters telling them that the programme will end in March 2025 and that if a new postmaster is not found for their Post Offices, they would have to agree to a leavers' payment of 12 months - less than half what they had previously agreed.
Postmasters and subpostmasters are business people who run individual Post Office branches. There are 130 Hard to Place (HtP) branches impacted by the decision across the country, and one of those affected according to the National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP) is in Chew Magna near Bristol.
These HtP branches are Post Offices where replacement postmasters cannot be found and therefore are at risk of closure as a result of the postmaster leaving the business. The NFSP argue that after taxes and redundancy pay-outs are made the "long-serving" postmasters, who may be at retirement age, will be left with little.
It states that the Post Office has refused to accept that its offer of 12 months may leave colleagues with very little remaining after they pay tax, leases or mortgages, staff redundancies, and other associated costs such as clearing the Post Office counter from the premises. The NFSP claim that Post Office's push for this option is to avoid having to fund the transfer of HtP subpostmasters on to the new IT (NBit) system.
In a recent letter to those affected subpostmasters, NFSP chief executive Calum Greenhow wrote: “Post Office are willing to treat postmasters today in the same manner in which they treated them throughout the Horizon scandal.
“Government consistently states that they have provided funding to the Post Office of £2.4bn via the NT process, which should have included ring-fenced funds to allow all those colleagues from 2015 to exit the network with 26 months Leavers' Payment. Our question remains, what has happened to that ring-fenced money?”
Post Office's response
A Post Office spokesperson said: “Following a programme that first started over a decade ago, there are around 130 Post Offices, out of a network of over 11,500 branches today, that constitute a hard to place branch. Under the programme’s arrangements, agreed with the Government of the time, Postmasters who wanted to leave the network were only entitled to an exit payment if and when a replacement branch was found.
“We have endeavoured to keep these Postmasters updated with regards to their options for remaining or leaving their role as a Postmaster. We have asked these 130 Postmasters to tell us how they would like to proceed with regards to their Post Office and have dedicated colleagues able to support and provide advice on their options.
"We fully recognise that for these Postmasters this is a difficult time, but with limited funds we need to ensure we prioritise maintaining access in the areas our communities and customers need it most."
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