A campaign against changes to benefit payments is being stepped up after fears were raised that it could lead to post office closures.

Post office workers, pensioners and benefits claimants across Oxfordshire have reacted with outrage to Government proposals to scrap the Post Office Card Account.

Under a new scheme, people will be required to open a bank account instead of going to a post office to withdraw benefits, including pensions.

The Department for Work and Pensions told the Oxford Mail the scheme, set up three years ago, was only ever meant to be a temporary "transitional" measure to get people used to the new scheme.

But the comments have sparked anger among post office branch managers who said they were never told it was short-term.

They fear the system, which could be fully implemented by 2010, could spell the end of rural and small town branches.

Posters saying "Save your card account, save your post office, say no to plans to take away your card account don't let your card account be stamped out" are going up in post offices across Oxfordshire and the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters is urging people to contact their MPs.

Sheena Palmer, Oxford and Bicester NFSP branch president and postmistress of Watlington Post Office, said: "The Government seems hellbent on ruining post offices and services for rural communities.

"The DWP is already sending out letters telling people to switch, yet there was no consultation. We're saying people should stick with the card account and not give in.

"The future of post offices could depend on this."

The account is used by up to 4m pensioners a week nationally and generates £200m revenue annually for the Post Office. Great Milton postmistress Christine Donnelly was concerned people would have difficulty getting to banks to set up accounts and withdraw money, and that other rural shops and services could be affected.

She said: "If a person goes to the post office, they pop to the butchers or bakery at the same time. This whole tradition is under threat."

She said it could mean closure of village shops in sub-post office premises and added: "The only way we could survive is if all banks allowed accounts to be accessed via the post office, and that's unlikely to happen."

Twenty five banks allow people to draw money from their accounts at post offices, but some of the UK's biggest providers, HSBC, Natwest and the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, have so far refused to join the service.

Delly Everard, spokesman for the campaign group Countryside Alliance, said: "Withdrawal could leave pensioners in outlying areas having to travel several miles, with scarce public transport, to collect benefits."

More than 280 MPs from across political parties, including Banbury MP Tony Baldry and Wantage MP Ed Vaizey, have signed a motion against abolition of the account.

Mr Vaizey said he believed the plans could force one in five post offices to close and those which managed to survive would have no choice but to shed staff.

A DWP spokesman said POCA had proved expensive costing £1 per transaction, compared to 1p for bank accounts and the change- over would save taxpayers' money. She added that anyone who did not already have a bank account would be given advice