We get only a fraction of fees customers pay

POSTMASTERS are demanding to know why they get such a tiny cut of the money customers are charged – and where the rest goes.

Some branches offer services such as checking an identity document. But while customers are charged £10.50, the postmaster keeps only £1. Last night Post Office Ltd chiefs refused to say how much profit it takes from these services.

A row also broke out over the small fees postmasters get for offering banking services. While banks can charge customers £7 for a £1,000 deposit, the post office branch typically gets less than 50p.

Some branches offer services such as document checking, passport ‘check and send’ and issuing international driving permits.

But mystery surrounds what happens to all the money customers are charged.

In the case of ID document checks, where a customer pays £10.50 for staff to verify that a copy of a passport or birth certificate is authentic, postmasters suspect the Post Office head office is making more money than they do. Ash Parmer, of Sutton-in-Ashfield post office, Nottinghamshire, said: ‘With the identity check service, we are the ones doing all the work. Post Office Ltd doesn’t do anything at all.

‘We get a pittance for the transaction we are doing. It’s the same with the passport check service and the international driving permit – for the majority of transactions, we are doing the work but getting peanuts.’

At Dorchester post office in Dorset, the postmaster, who did not wish to be named, said: ‘ Why are we – the ones at the frontend, who have all the costs and are doing all the work – getting the smallest share?’

Calum Greenhow, of the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters, told MPs yesterday that of £20million made by Post Office Ltd from banking services in 2017 to 2018, ‘only £3million actually made its way through to the postmasters – in other words Post Office kept 85 per cent and we got 15 per cent.’ Last night Post Office Ltd said: ‘We are committed to ensuring our postmasters receive a fair remuneration for the vital services they provide.’