Scrapping Post Office Card Accounts - used by thousands of Bradford pensioners to receive their benefits - could lead to further branch closures, MPs have warned.

A report by the Commons Treasury Select Committee, published yesterday, said the planned withdrawal of the card accounts in 2010 was "likely to result in a loss of income to the Post Office".

It continued: "If this income cannot be replaced by alternative services or products, then either Post Offices will close or Government (subsidies) will need to increase."

Peter Finlay, north-east regional secretary for the National Federation of SubPostmasters and postmaster in Menston, said: "This is just re-iterating what we already know, that if we take another strand out of the re-numeration, it will unfortunately be yet another nail in the coffin for postmasters.

"It will especially affect rural and inner city deprived areas, where postmasters are already finding it hard, because of changes in bill payments and television licences."

And Alison Otulakowski, sub-postmaster at Denholme Post Office, said: "The government are already fading POCAs out. But without the revenue from them, post offices won't survive."

Ministers are due to set out their proposals for the future of the Post Office network before the end of the year.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has already told MPs subsidies cannot increase when the Government's annual £150 million investment to keep the network afloat ends in March, 2008.

The Post Office network is currently making a loss of about £2 million a week and Postcomm, the independent regulator for postal services in the UK, has said only 1,500 of the country's 8,000 rural post offices make any money for Post Office Limited, which oversees the network.

Between 1999 and 2005, 22 post offices have closed across the parliamentary constituencies of Bradford North, Bradford South, Bradford West, Keighley and Shipley.

The Treasury Committee's report, Banking the Unbanked, said the take-up of POCAs had been "far greater than the Government expected".

Pensions are paid in to 2,850 accounts in Bradford North, 3,430 in Bradford South, 2,580 in Bradford West, 3,360 in Keighley and 3,070 in Shipley.

Post Offices Minister Jim Fitzpatrick has pledged there will be a successor to the Post Office Card Account "for those who have difficulty accessing a bank account".

Committee Chairman John McFall said: "The POCA is not an adequate substitute for a bank account, but it is an essential financial lifeline for many.

"We found the transition from a POCA to a successor product has not been well-handled by the Department for Work and Pensions.

"The department needs to make amends by ensuring that plans for a successor product provided by the Post Office are in place in good time, and well before 2010."

e-mail: newsdesk @bradford.newsquest.co.uk