Departments have been criticised by MPs for their failure to support the Post Office.
The Commons business and enterprise select committee, which has published a report on the future of the Post Office network, described Whitehall's response to its specific enquiries as profoundly disappointing.
The committee of MPs wrote to each department to ask them what services they currently provide through post offices and whether they were exploring any further ideas.
A number failed to respond at all, including the Departments for Children, Schools and Families, the Department for Energy and Climate Change, the Department for International Development, HM Revenue and Customs, the Scotland Office and the Wales Office.
And while the Department for Transport and the Home Office were praised for their "thoughtful responses", the MPs' report said that several others "utterly failed" to answer the questions.
These were the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department of Health, the former Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, the Ministry of Justice and the Northern Ireland Office.
"The Department for Work and Pensions' reply was very poor, particularly considering their key role in improving social inclusion," the report added.
The committee described itself as "profoundly disappointed by the narrow focus of departmental concerns and the lack of attention to citizens' needs displayed in many of the answers to our questions about departments' use of the post office network".
The cross-party group of MPs concluded that the Post Office network could continue providing public and private services as long as there was the "will and imagination, and wholehearted government support".
The MPs' report claimed that "many of the problems facing the network are a consequence of the government moving services online and so reducing the Post Office Ltd's income".
Warning that only 40 per cent of households had internet access and arguing that the Post Office reaches a wider audience, MPs said: "However much the government may want to encourage digital inclusion, it also needs to prevent social exclusion."
Financial services, local authority services, central government work and broader community services could all be provided through the Post Office network, the report suggested.
"The biggest barrier to the expansion of government services offered through the network is the attitude and lack of imagination of most government departments," the committee claimed.
"It is bizarre that government policy recognises the value of the network, but that individual departments do not see that they have a role in making sure that everybody, not just the web-enabled, has access to their services, and that taking this seriously by using the Post Office network more could contribute to wider policy aims."
Responding to the report, business minister Pat McFadden said the post office "cannot survive on nostalgia so it has to seek new ways of bringing custom through the door" as society changes and internet usage grows.
"Part of that can be through government work and we have already awarded the Post Office the new card account contract for benefits and pensions, as well as the new contract for driving licence renewal," he said. "But part of it can be an expansion in banking and financial services too."
The committee's report comes a day after a coalition including the Communication Workers Union and the Federation of Small Business called for a state-backed Post Bank to be created, taking in Northern Rock's business.
A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said the government had always intended for Northern Rock to return to the private sector, but said the government was "actively exploring" how the Post Office could extend its financial services.
