A COUNCIL leader has added his voice to fears that changes to the way benefit claimants are paid will make the lives of disadvantaged people even more difficult.

Leader of Easington District Council Alan Napier has joined local MP John Cummings in calling for the retention of the current system.

The Post Office Card Direct Debit payment account was introduced in 2003 for benefit and pension recipients who do not have bank accounts.

But the Government plans to withdraw the card service in 2010 and has already stopped offering it to new Jobseeker Allowance claimants in Peterlee.

The Department of Works and Pensions has stated its intention to make claimants open alternative accounts with high street banks or building societies.

There are fears that scrapping the card accounts will seriously damage the viability of sub post offices in the district which, stripped of business and revenue, could face having to close.

Coun Napier said many benefits claimants in the Easington district relied heavily on the post office system for their access to money.

He said: "People who can ill afford it, or for whom travelling to neighbouring towns is a problem, will be seriously inconvenienced and suffer further hardship.

"The High Street banks have long deserted the district's mining villages and people have come to rely on their local post office for a whole range of services.

"If they cease to exist, card holders and other claimants will have to find ways to travel into other shopping centres to access their money and the viability of other small community shops will also be put in peril."

Coun Napier said the council considers that post offices were offering a key service in east Durham's villages.

He added: "They deliver an excellent service to people where they want them and need them - at the very heart of the community.''

Residents who want to support the campaign for the retention of post offices are invited to sign petitions which are being circulated in the area and to write to Mr Cummings expressing their views.

Welcoming the east Durham campaign, Colin Baker, general secretary of the National Federation of Sub Postmasters, said the decision to scrap Post Office Card accounts rode roughshod over the rights of users.

"The decision will, we fear, force thousands of post offices to close,'' he said, and pledged that his federation would fight hard to retain the service.