Hertford Accountant recovers from shock

I heard something on the radio about 30 minutes ago and it’s taken me this long to recover from shock.

Royal Mail has been given the go-ahead by OFCOM (The regulator) to increase first and second class stamps by 30% and 39% respectively as from 30th April.

Look at how much it will now cost you to send snail mail:-

First class              up from 46p to 60p
Second class        up from 36p to 50p

Postage rates for Large Letters and Packets have also increased…. just like the length of queues in many Post Offices up and down the country.

Apparently this is to allow Royal Mail to head towards complete privatisation. This is on top of the Government (us) assuming responsibility for the £9½bn Pension deficit as announced in the Budget a few days ago.

There is a price cap in effect for 2nd class stamps of 55p and increases restricted to the CPI rate of inflation. So there is a possibility that 2nd class stamps will cost 55p next year.

People on low incomes will be able to buy up to 36 stamps at the current price for Christmas cards. This applies to those receiving Pension Credit, ESA and Incapacity Benefit. Note that all the stamps have to be bought in one visit.

Normal stamps are marked up with “1st class” or “2nd class” rather than with the cost of the stamp – so maybe you should bulk buy books of stamps now. Or use e-mail more.

Apparently Superdrug is selling stamps until 10th April with a 5% discount!