A CONSERVATIVE shadow minister paid a flying visit to a Chandler's Ford post office after the owner complained that a new government initiative could cripple her business.

Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Tim Yeo, Test Valley Borough councillor Caroline Nokes and Fareham MP Mark Hoban met Rachel Hunt from Hiltingbury Post Office.

The team of politicians listened to Mrs Hunt's concerns about the new system of paying benefits and pensions directly into peoples' bank accounts or at an ATM style pin machine in post offices rather than over the counter.

It is a system in chaos and will cause fewer people to visit post offices meaning that many such businesses will go to the wall claims Mrs Hunt.

President of Southampton Sub-postmasters Mrs Hunt said: "People supposedly have the choice about whether to get benefit paid into a bank account or get it a pin machine but it's so hard to get it at a pin machine there's no real choice.

"People get a form to fill in to say if they want to use the pin machine but I know people are having troubling registering for the scheme and one lady was in floods of tears because she thought she wouldn't get her pension.

"Plus a lot of them can't be expected to remember a four digit pin number at their age and so lots will forget and then how do they draw their benefit or pension?"

Mr Yeo said: "If there are less people going to their local post office then it will suffer because these are people who might have picked up some goods while there.

"It's happening all over the country. People should be able to get benefit from post offices but in reality the government are putting all sorts of obstacles in their way. It's virtually impossible to open one."

He said that Conservatives want the pin scheme registration problems to be sorted out immediately and for it to be better promoted so more people know they have a choice about whether their money goes straight into the bank account or not.