Post Office to continue providing POCA
The Post Office Card Account (POCA) will continue to be provided by the Post Office, the secretary of state for work and pensions has announced.James Purnell revealed that the tender process to find a replacement for POCA had been cancelled, with the Post Office being given a contract to run the accounts from 2010 to March 2015.After this period an extension may be provided.Mr Purnell said that the decision to cancel the competitive tender was to make sure the Post Office network remained healthy, and he felt it was "the right decision for our customers, the Post Office and sub-postmasters"."The card account is an important source of income, and brings customers through the doors of Post Offices across the country," he said.In response to the announcement, the Citizens Advice service said that if the contract had been awarded to a different tender it would have been "disastrous" for the Post Office network.It added that there must be a "seamless migration" to the new account for the 4.3 million POCA customers who use it for pensions and benefits.
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