A REPLACEMENT must be found fast for 5,500 Swindon pensioners who will lose their post office card accounts, MPs have been warned.

Many elderly people will be unable to receive their state pension at a bank when the accounts are controversially axed, the Post Office told a Commons inquiry.

It was up to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to design a replacement for those pensioners before the accounts disappear in four years' time.

Alan Cook, managing director of Post Office Ltd, said: "Is the situation desirable from the customers' perspective? Absolutely not.

"I can't imagine the million-plus customers who currently have a card account and don't have a bank account will all end up with a bank account. A successor vehicle is likely to be needed."

DWP figures show that 2,900 pensioners in North Swindon and 2,600 in South Swindon have their money paid into post office card accounts (POCA).

About 2,900 elderly people in North Wiltshire receive payments through the accounts.

Many pensioners are believed to be reluctant to open bank accounts and use hole-in-the-wall cash point machines, having relied for years on their local Post Office branch.

The DWP has announced the scheme will be axed in 2010, arguing it was only ever a temporary measure to encourage pensioners to open bank accounts instead.

This week pensions minister James Plaskitt told MPs that it cost the DWP £200m a year to support POCAs.