WARRINGTON postmasters could lose more than half their current income when changes to the way benefits are handed out are introduced early next year.

Terrence Pigott, sub-postmaster at Wargrave Post Office in Newton, and secretary of the Warrington branch of the Federation of Sub-postmasters, says postmasters need to have their income guaranteed over the next three years in order for them to avoid closure.

As reported in last week's Guardian, many urban post offices up and down the country are under threat over plans to close around 3,000, while those that survive look likely to be squeezed as the Government encourages more people to have their benefits paid by direct credit rather than face-to-face at the counter - thereby hitting their business.

Mr Pigott said: "Post offices will have to close. It is difficult to put a figure on it, but what we want is a closure programme to allow those who want to leave to leave because there is not going to be enough work to go around."

Although the town's rural post offices are safe - those covering less than 10,000 residents - many urban post offices are under threat.

Mr Pigott explained: "My income has gone down in the six years since I bought the post office.

"Both myself and my wife work here but effectively on one wage - we have put our savings, redundancy package and taken out a bank loan to pay for this, yet we are getting no investment from it - barely a salary.

"People don't realise that we own the post offices and each transaction directly affects us. I would not buy a post office now.

"Our main work is benefits and book payments, which account for 60 per cent of our income.

"The worry is are these people still going to buy stamps and are they still going to pay their bills here - that is why post offices are going to close because there is not enough income to support them."