Northern Ireland Post Offices are coming under mounting pressure to remain viable amid rising costs and banking regulations.
The people who run our Post Offices say they have been at the heart of many communities for decades as a place where people can communicate with one another, do business and access certain government services and banking.
However in recent years the service model has been coming under increased pressure with some Post Offices struggling to cover their costs. Some are even being subsidised by partner retail businesses, bosses say.
Read more: Northern Ireland £600 energy vouchers rollout date announced
They say this is due to a variety of factors such as the rising cost of living and energy bills, increased staff wages and limitations to their banking services that have been imposed by outside factors.
It comes as Post Offices have become the only venue where people will be able to redeem their £600 energy support vouchers.
The National Federation of SubPostmasters has said that it has been lobbying MPs and ministers in an effort to highlight the challenges being faced by Postmasters in Northern Ireland, specifically with regards for support with rising energy bills and recent measures that have been imposed by Financial Conduct Authority to stop money laundering that are affecting the Post Office's banking services.
These measures have put restrictions on the amount of money a person or business can deposit or withdraw from the Post Office, which has significantly impacted their revenue from banking transactions.
The Federation said that Post Offices were supposed to be the new face of banks on the high street in order to support banks closing down branches and it feels that this has now been nearly taken away from them.
One Postmaster in Belfast said that they ran a number premises in the city at a loss of £1,500 per week and is having to subsidise them from their successful retail businesses.
They said: "In recent months we have found that we are being forced to subsidise our Post Office services through our retail business because we are just not getting the remuneration from the company for these to be profitable.
"While these Post Offices are a vital part of our businesses due to their importance to the communities in which we are based and the fact that they are a big draw to bring customers into our shops, it is becoming more and more difficult to keep these viable.
"This became very apparent at the end of last year when our post offices were totalling £1,500 in losses every week due to a number of different factors.
"Firstly the rising costs of living, energy bills and wages is having an impact on the service and the money is just not being passed down from the head office or the Government to cover these effectively.
"We had also been told that the banking services would become a focal point of our businesses in order to generate income, but in recent months it feels like the carpet has been taken out from underneath us due to action that has been taken by the FCA with regards to money laundering, which is limiting the amount of money that people are able to deposit with us at any one time.
"While this is having a big impact on us, it is also impacting our customers as we are not able to tell them how much money they are able to lodge at any one time. In some cases £200 is the limit, in others it could be £500 or more, but it is occupying our staff's time dealing with these issues which has a knock-on effect throughout the service.
"When you consider that the Government is a major stakeholder within the Post Office, there are questions that need to be answered as to why this has become the case and why small businesses are being expected to foot the bill for their services."
Another Postmaster from the North West said that they run a couple of premises with one of them being in the top 25% performing offices in Northern Ireland.
However despite this, they say that the business just about makes a profit and believe there is more that the Post Office could be doing to make the business model more successful for Postmasters.
They said: "I run two post offices and I would consider one of them to be performing very well, but that is only down to the hardwork of me and my staff, and even then are just about making money every week.
"When you think of the risk that is involved with the business and the huge amount of financial risk that we take on a daily basis, you wonder sometimes whether or not it is worth it.
"We can have tens of thousands of pounds going through the business everyday and we are liable for any errors or incidents that could take place, which could prove very costly.
"There is definitely an ability for the business model to succeed as some of our services, such as the drop and go service, are popular and valued by our customers, but I feel that the Post Office Ltd as a whole needs to be more flexible and look at ways where we can become more competitive against our competitors and a few tweaks to our models could do that."
The NFSP has called for a range of solutions to support Post Offices which include, greater remuneration for banking services, increasing the deposit amount for banking services, more government services be provided through the Post Office and the suspension of business rates for premises with a Post Office.
Calum Greenhow, Chief Executive of the NFSP said: "There are growing concerns over the lack of a future strategy for the Post Office from the Government who are a major shareholder in the business.
"Postmasters and their staff across the UK are working tirelessly in order to ensure that this network stays alive for the benefit of their customers and communities and should not be put in a position where they should be having to prop up a Government owned business."
A Post Office spokesperson said: “This is the most challenging economic climate retailers have faced in decades and we fully recognise the pressures Postmasters face to keep their branch open and serve their local community.
“Post Office increased remuneration rates in August to support Postmasters, including a one-off lump sum to help with the difficult winter ahead. We have also secured partnerships with Amazon, DPD and DHL Express to help increase footfall for our postmasters and have just announced a new trial partnership with Evri.
“However, we made clear to postmasters in August that further help, particularly with energy costs, would be required from the UK Government who is the sole shareholder of the Post Office. The Energy Bill Relief Scheme announced in September that provides a saving until the end of March 2023 is not only welcome but vital. The immediate priority is for post offices to be considered ‘particularly vulnerable’ for further support by the UK Government when it announces the conclusion of its review of energy support next week. If postmasters lose the support for their business energy costs, this could significantly affect their ability to stay open and help millions of people access the help they need.
“We have 500 Post Offices in Northern Ireland and this figure has remained steady for a number of years. Postmasters are about to deliver the vital Energy Bill Support Scheme for households in Northern Ireland that don’t pay their energy by direct debit or have a prepayment meter. We are focused on supporting Postmasters through what will be a very busy period and we encourage people to look out for their letter, ensure they bring their letter and voucher, proof of address and photographic proof of ID with them when they claim their £600 voucher. This will make things as quick as possible for Postmasters to process.”
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