Age Concern chief executive Karen Billings-Jensen told the Herald this decision could wreak havoc with the lives of older people throughout New Zealand.
“For those who aren’t digitally literate or don’t have access to the internet or a smartphone, these are the places in the community that they can go to pay bills, to get government forms.
“If you’re not online to do some of the key life admin, I guess they call it these days, that’s really important.”
Billings-Jensen said this could also limit the ability for some people to have a Kiwi Access Card, while further travel could lead to greater risk.
“Sometimes there just isn’t good public transport options that will support people getting there or a lack of other private options, be it taxis, in some communities, so we see it as quite a risk.”
She was concerned about how decisions like these makes it difficult to remain in and sustain life in more isolated communities.
“It would increase isolation and it will potentially then increase people falling through the gaps that simply become more invisible and potentially not connecting to services, community and getting things we need.
“I think mail is often quite critical. We probably know that older people might rely more heavily on traditional postal services, but there’s a whole lot of risks around people being disenfranchised through not being able to live their life online, whatever age they are and for whatever reason.”
New Zealand Post GM consumer Sarah Sandoval told the Herald Kiwis’ access to NZ Post services was one of its top priorities.
“The changes only relate to our urban retail network and 90% of Kiwis living in urban areas will still be within 4km of an NZ Post store.”
She said while they acknowledge that these changes will mean a change for some customers, they have taken a “careful, evidence-based approach to designing these changes”.
“We analysed detailed customer patterns and retail network data to understand how people are using NZ Post today, especially the growth in parcel sending and collection,” she said.
“We also took a detailed look at drive-time data and engaged with our retail partners so we could understand where changes made sense.”
What will happen to PO boxes and post boxes?
When asked about PO boxes, NZ Post said if a store has a box lobby and NZ Post services are being removed, the box lobby will be included in these changes.
“Box holders will be moved to the closest remaining box lobby, and we will contact customers directly well in advance to let them know where their new location will be. These changes will not begin until May this year.”
NZ Post said there were no immediate changes planned for posting boxes.
However, this may be reviewed in future.
“If there are any future changes, we will let people know well in advance.”