STRUGGLES OF POST STAFF ON AS LITTLE AS £1 AN HOUR

We work very hard – but the pay doesn’t match up

THERE are times when Victoria MacDonald wonders why she bothers keeping her post office open. The work is so hard and the pay so low she says the job amounts to ‘a bit of a thankless task’.

‘It’s very labour intensive. For the pay you get the work is very disproportionate,’ she said.

She and husband Grahame set up a post office in their pub The Cellar House four years ago after the last postmaster retired.

They run it in addition to another pub and a hotel, while juggling family life with two children aged 19 and 11.

Mrs MacDonald, 48, said the couple’s post office in Eaton, near Norwich, is just breaking even as less money is being paid for the services provided.

The closure of Barclays bank in the village also means the couple have taken on more responsibilities without the required training. ‘We’ve got people coming in to do what they would usually go to Barclays for,’ she said.

‘We’ve got an increasingly elderly community and people want to pick up their retirement money and pay in a cheque. That’s before you start doing the passports, driving licences and so on.

‘There have been days when I think “Why do I bother?” The only motivation in doing it is for the goodwill of the community.’