Post Office Card Account

Mr. Evennett
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in (a) the London Borough of Bexley and (b) Greater London have a Post Office card account.

Mr. Plaskitt
Information is not available in the format requested.

Information showing the number of DWP benefit and pension payment accounts paid by Direct Payment into a Post Office card account in (a) the London Borough of Bexley and (b) Greater London is shown in the following table.

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|Greater London authorities|Number of accounts|
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|Barking and Dagenham      |15,250            |
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|Barnet                    |11,630            |
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|Bexley                    |10,700            |
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|Brent                     |13,560            |
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|Bromley                   |12,570            |
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|Camden                    |11,020            |
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|City of London            |230               |
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|Croydon                   |15,950            |
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|Ealing                    |13,160            |
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|Enfield                   |15,810            |
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|Greenwich                 |16,400            |
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|Hackney                   |17,270            |
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|Hammersmith and Fulham    |9,940             |
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|Haringey                  |14,800            |
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|Harrow                    |6,190             |
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|Havering                  |13,070            |
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|Hillingdon                |10,310            |
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|Hounslow                  |8,850             |
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|Islington                 |15,900            |
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|Kensington and Chelsea    |6,280             |
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|Kingston upon Thames      |4,450             |
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|Lambeth                   |17,020            |
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|Lewisham                  |15,810            |
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|Merton                    |6,910             |
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|Newham                    |18,360            |
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|Redbridge                 |11,410            |
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|Richmond upon Thames      |4,490             |
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|Southwark                 |16,050            |
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|Sutton                    |7,670             |
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|Tower Hamlets             |16,740            |
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|Waltham Forest            |14,590            |
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|Wandsworth                |12,170            |
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|Westminster               |9,530             |
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Clive Efford
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department has taken to reduce costs of Post Office card account transactions.

Mr. Plaskitt
My Department has taken no steps, other than those built into the original contract, to either reduce the cost of each transaction into a Post Office card account or to reduce the range or quality of services provided to customers.