First class! MoS’s stamp swap win

A BAN on old ‘non-barcoded’ stamps has been delayed until next summer in a remarkable victory for The Mail on Sunday and letter writers across the UK.

The Royal Mail’s climbdown also sees forms and freepost envelopes being made available at post offices, making the process of swapping old stamps for new ones much easier.

Royal Mail is rolling out barcoded stamps, which it says will help tackle fraud and make it easier to track post.

But an abrupt cut-off of January 31 to use old stamps led to fears that Britons – especially the UK’s 12million pensioners, who post much more than younger people – would be left with tens of millions of unused and useless stamps.

MPs, watchdogs and customers last night welcomed the move by the postal service in response to The Mail on Sunday’s campaign.

We had urged Royal Mail to extend the looming deadline and called for the company to make it easier for those who need to change their old stamps for the new barcoded ones.

Before our intervention, customers had to download and print a form from the internet, which was unpopular among many elderly people who prefer to do things face to face.

Royal Mail said last night that it had listened to the MoS and its customers and agreed that the deadline, in less than three months, was too soon. Matthew Parkes, managing director of stamps at Royal Mail, said: ‘In order to give our customers even more time to use up any remaining non-barcoded stamps, we have decided to introduce a six-month grace period starting from the original deadline of January 31, 2023, where non-barcoded stamps will still be delivered as normal.

‘To make things even easier for our customers, we have also agreed with the Post Office to include the forms to enable customers to swap stamps alongside freepost envelopes in its branches.

‘This means that customers will be able to fill out a form, insert it into a freepost envelope with any remaining non-barcoded stamps and hand it over for posting in a Post Office branch.’

Royal Mail had already changed its mind on a ban on pictorial stamps, such as Christmas ones, earlier this year. As a result, stamps with pictures – even ones that don’t carry a barcode – will continue to be valid.

Tory MP Alexander Stafford, vicechairman of Westminster’s all-party philately group, said: ‘The Mail on Sunday is to be congratulated for standing up for the rights of Royal Mail and Post Office customers across the country.

‘The January deadline would have inevitably left many people with stamps that they had bought with their hard-earned cash and which would suddenly become completely useless.

‘I still believe the system for swapping over old stamps for new ones could be made easier but I am glad that the necessary forms and freepost envelopes will now be available at post offices.’

Labour MP Kevan Jones, vice-chairman of the all-party Post Offices group, said: ‘It is very good news that the Royal Mail has now seen sense and given people more time to swap their old stamps for the new versions.

‘The original January deadline was utterly ridiculous. Thanks to pressure from The Mail on Sunday, the actual process of exchanging old stamps for new in post offices has been made much easier.’

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: ‘Hopefully this extension will give older people extra time to ensure they don’t find themselves with stamps they can’t use.

‘With so many older people now conscious of their spending, we know that every penny really does count.’

Baroness Altmann, co-chairwoman of the all-party ageing and older people group and a former Pensions Minister, said: ‘Well done to The Mail on Sunday for keeping up the pressure on Royal Mail and well done to Royal Mail for seeing sense on this. Making reclaim forms available at post offices and extending the changeover deadline are very good improvements for millions.’

Reena Sewraz, money and shopping editor at Which?, said: ‘It is good that the Royal Mail has seen sense as many people faced being left out of pocket for stamps that could have ended up going to waste.

‘These changes should now be clearly communicated to ensure people make use of their non-barcoded stamps ahead of the new deadline.’

Former Cabinet Minister Ann Widdecombe said: ‘It is a victory for common sense. I don’t really understand why there had to be a major campaign for the Royal Mail to see the light.’

Customer Jean Teverson, 82, from Ashford, Surrey – who has books of

stamps she uses to send letters and birthday cards to her friends and large family – also welcomed the move. The retired hairdresser, who does not use the internet or have a smartphone, said: ‘It’s really good news – it’s made my Christmas.

‘I am pleased that somebody saw sense and saw our point of view.’

After the deadline, which is now July 31, any letter posted with a non-barcoded stamp – with the exception of pictorial ones – will incur a fine. The postal service will dump items at sorting offices and charge fines of up to £3.50 to retrieve each piece of post.

Fines for letters sent without postage have recently increased from £2 to £2.50 for normal letters and a pound more for bigger ones. It has been expected Royal Mail would pocket £5million in such fines had the deadline stayed as January 31.