CIRCULATION: NATIONAL EXECUTIVE
Your Ref:
Our Ref
CB/EJA/PC NW 06 01
PO PZ
20th November 1998
The Rt. Hon. Alistair Darling Esq.
Secretary of State for Social Security
Department of Social Security
Richmond House
79 Whitehall
London SW1A 2NS
I am sorry to need to write to you again but I wonder if you have received my letter to
you of 5th November 1998 in which I expressed the concerns of Sub-Postmasters at
the doubt which had been cast upon the Horizon project by an article in Computer
Weekly.
I hope that you can understand that I am being faced with a growing number of
extremely anxious members who, having read about or heard of, the suggestions that
the Benefits Card is to be dropped, are pressing me for an answer.
I would, therefore, appreciate an urgent indication. from you of the position of the
Government with respect to the Horizon project so that Sub-I Postmasters everywhere
can know the true position.
I look forward to hearing from you.
COLIN BAKER
General Secretary
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COUNCIL
General Secretary
Coun Baker
Assistant General Secretaries
Kev Davis,
PAUL HEASHAN
Ne
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CIRCULATION: NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
Your Ref
Our Ref:
CB/EJA/PC NW 06 01
5th November 1998
The Rt. Hon. Alistair Darling Esq.
Secretary of State for Social Security
Department of Social Security General Secretary
Richmond House - COUN BaxeR
79 Whitehall
Assistant General Secretaries
London SW1A 2NS : Kean Das
PAUL HEASMAN
COMPUTER WEEKLY ARTICLE :
I was shocked to read the report in Computer Weekly this morning which purported to have
senior Government officials as its source.
The suggestion that the Benefit Payment Card is to be dropped would completely contradict
assurances given by Kate Hoey on behalf of your Department at the National Federation of
Sub-Postmasters’ annual conference in May, and by the Rt. Hon. Peter Mandelson
yesterday at the Trade and Industry Select Committee. H
It would also appear to undermine the proposals put forward by the Prime Minister at the
Labour Party Conference in September for a single account - pilots of which I understood
were going to be developed jointly between yourselves and The Post Office.
“I would like to’make it quite clear that any proposal to automate the post office network I
which does not involve the continuation of the Benefits Payment Card would be wholly I
unacceptable to Sub-Postmasters, who have invested their livelihoods on the basis of
assurances given by your Government.
The continued payment of benefits via the post office network is crucial to the survival of
thousands of sub post offices. Removing this income would leave the network unstable
and unable to survive long term.
' look forward to a speedy response to clarify that you will not let Sub-Postmasters down by
reneging on previous promises. I also hope you will do everything possible to prevent your
Officials from helping further scurrilous articles to appear in the press, which can only serve
to undermine Sub-Postmasters’ confidence in the integrity of this Government.
I am sending a copy of this letter to the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Trade and
Industry, The Treasury Chief Secretary and to the Managing Director of Post Office
Counters.
General Secretary
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PC NW 06 01
A/3
NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
CIRCULATION:
Finding neth... Mandelson seas the post offoe ans bushes?
MPs quiz Civil Aviation
Authority on Swanwick
A COMMITTEE of MPs
have raised Computer
Weekly's concerns abaut the
Government's choice of in-
dependent auditor of the
computer systems iit the
« air traffic contrat
Traffic Services
and the State-owned Defence
Evaluation Research Agency
which was appointed by the
Goverament to conduct en
pie, chief executive of
National Air Traffic Serviess. I
Stringer said. “Computer
Weekly has cclticiesd the 1-4
experts at Defoace Evaivn-
tion Research Agency who
have been looking at Nat- { J
ional Air Traffic Services. It
says they are not the right
peopte, that you are in bed
oe Fe
News
a
Benefits card faces axe
81M Jacobs and Stephen Philips
THE GOVERNMENT is
considering a radical rescue
package to salvage FCL's
troubled f1ba post office
automation praject.
A senior source said the
benefits payment swipe card,
touted as che £150m-a-year
antidete to social security
fraud when the conteact was
signed in 1996, may be scrag-
ped wader a “major reconfig-
uration of the contract”,
~The benefits payment
card doesn’t have to form
pact of the contract if it’s
changed,” added the gover
iast-miaute taike with ICL
and the Post Office on the
future of the project—dubbed
BA-Pocl or Pathway - which
has faced the axe since April
when the Treasury instigated
2 crisis review.
ICListwo years tate detiv-
ering a swipe, card-enabled
platform to computerize
19.245 post offices.
The government is press-
ing ahead with fans
announced by Tony Blair at
last month's Labour Party
conference. for gost offices to
host accounts for the esti-
mated $% of the population
~— mostly benefits claimants -
shunaed by high-street banks,
NatWest unveils coin cash dispenser
NatWest has inteoduced a coin dispenser-enabled cash
machine which would allow benefits payments to be dis-
pensed trom the hole-in-the-wail-type machine.
The technology overcomes the problem of automated
teller machines oaly dispensing cash in muttipies of £10,
which has prevented bants offering this service.
Benefits could also be downloaded 2s eleciranic cash
from cash machines using a Mandex card, said a spokesman
for NatWest.
‘The proposals wou'd pare
the way (or univer: Tt
payments by aust it
transfer into bi
making a heaetits
card superfiuous,
Bet Pathway h
work was presented
Peter Mandchon
lg proceeding will
ject”. An (CL spokeswoman
‘said ICL remained cowniit-
rcyalblue,