MORE Bolton post offices could close if a lucrative Government contract for pensions is taken away from them.

Post offices currently run a scheme which allows people to receive their pensions and benefits directly on to a card.

However, a rival bid to take the contract over when it expires in 2010 has been tabled by Paypoint, the firm which has a network of payment and top-up machines in convenience stores.

Local postmasters are being kept waiting for a decision by ministers and say they will go bust if they lose the contract.

Bhavna Desai, a sub-postmaster from Kearsley, who represents all the post offices in Bolton on the National Federation of Sub-postmasters (NFS), said her business would fold if the contract was awarded to rival bidders.

Yesterday, she was in London to meet with other postmasters to discuss the problems they faced.

She said: “It would be a disaster for me and I am 100 per cent sure I would have to close.

“The Post Office card account is used by between 600 and 700 people in my post office to claim their benefits and pensions.

“About a quarter of my income comes from it and another 20 per cent from the associated trade it brings in, such as people paying their utility bills and buying savings stamps. It could cost me £1,000 a month.

“Every post office in Bolton will have many customers using it, especially in the more deprived urban areas, and all our members are fearful of their futures. People are just about hanging on with their finger nails at the moment.”

The Government has been forced to invite tenders for the new card account contract when it expires in 2010 due to European Union competition rules.

If the bid by Paypoint is accepted instead, it could see people queuing up at petrol stations and off-licences to collect their pensions.