The Payments Council was warned by the Treasury Committee yesterday that its decision to phase out cheques by 2018 should only go ahead if it can prove the public really wants it.

At a hearing yesterday, the Committee heard from Institute of Fundraising policy head Louise Richards that some charities garner nearly three-quarters of their donations via cheque and that the death of the cheque could be disastrous for them.

"You have to remember that 6.3 million people over the age of 65 don't have access to the internet," Richards told the Committee.

Other groups representing consumers and older people added their concerns to the Institute’s and the Committee chair, Labour and Co-operative Party MP John McFall, appeared sympathetic to their worries.

He told the Payments Council it had not presented sufficient evidence to put its decision beyond review, and warned that parliament might step in if it was not persuaded that the benefits of phasing out the payment method outweighed the costs to affected organisations.

Payments Council chief executive Paul Smee was told to get an independently-verified cost/benefit analysis and present this to the Committee once it is done.

McFall said the Council did not appear to have done any consumer research to determine whether people want cheques to be abolished or not, and that it had to give people the choice.

"I'll tell you now that as chairman of the Treasury Committee, I want cheques to be kept," McFall added. "We are not convinced that chques are in terminal decline, as you claim - they are still the second largest means of payment."