Royal Mail charging unmarried couples double for letters to be redirected

Royal Mail's redirection service could be overhauled after unmarried couples complained that it  discriminates against them.

The postal service was accused by consumer charity Citizens Advice for favouring the nuclear family with a pricing structure that charges people double if they live together but have different surnames. 

Citizens Advice said the service was "designed for households of the past" as more than half (55 per cent) of people who have moved house in the last two years have different surnames, it said.

Royal Mail said it agreed that a different pricing structure was needed and is currently "working on the details". Currently, consumers pay an upfront fee based on the length of time they want to use the service, with three packages ranging from £33.99 per surname for three months to £66.99 for 12 months.

A couple with different surnames would therefore be charged double for the service, "penalising" unmarried couples and spouses who keep their own names, and children and elderly relatives with different surnames, the charity said.

Adding the cost of just one additional surname makes the service more expensive than any other country, its research found.

In addition it found that, since 2012, the price of a three-month redirection has increased by 74 per cent, while second-class stamps have only gone up 12 per cent.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 32 per cent of families have "non-traditional" structures outside the married heterosexual couple, such as cohabiting opposite-sex couples, same-sex couples and lone-parent families.

Citizens Advice chief executive Gillian Guy said: "Many people rely on Royal Mail's redirection service, yet it's designed for households of the past.

"Consumers are facing a double whammy. Royal Mail has drastically increased the price of redirection over the years but hasn't changed its outdated price structure that assumes families always share the same surname.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "We agree with Citizens Advice that there is a need for a different pricing structure. "We wrote to Citizens Advice last week, before the report was issued, to confirm that we will change the pricing structure of our popular redirections service away from a per surname basis or anything similar.

"We are currently working on the details of this new pricing structure and will share once finalised."