Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2017 to Question 108977, on post office card accounts, what estimate his Department has made of the numbers of people so written to who have been affected by bank branch closures.

The Department has not made an estimate.

Payment into a bank account can give customers more control over when and where they access their money. As most bank accounts can be accessed at the Post Office, customers moving to those accounts can continue to collect their payments that way. Since January, 99% of banks’ personal customers are able to withdraw cash, deposit cash and cheques, and make balance enquiries at a Post Office counter via its network of 11,600 branches.