Cashiers could be removed from a Cumbrian council's offices in a bid to cut costs by �13,000 a year. South Lakeland councillors are being told that the number of people making council tax or rent payments in person has fallen by 36% over four years.
The service is also expensive to run with each transaction now costing the council about �1.50.
It hopes to redeploy the cashiers and put in place alternative arrangements for bill payments.
Offices in Windermere, Kendal and Ulverston would be affected.
'Reduced hours'
Jack Jones, director of finance at South Lakeland Council, said: "Like many organisations we are looking for efficiency measures.
"We've done some research and found that about 84% of customers already use banks, building societies and post offices to pay other bills so we feel we should be able to cover most of the population.
"We have realised there will be a gap mainly in the assistance we give to people filling in benefit forms and will continue to provide that on a reduced hours basis until we can introduce new technology.
"What we would like to see in the future are mobile computers so some of our trained benefit staff can go into people's homes or carry out surgeries in appropriate locations."
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