A woman was shocked to be told her vital benefit payments had been stopped because she was dead.
That was the reasoning given to 65-year-old Liverpool resident Ann Smith by the Department of Work and Pensions when crucial payments that she relies on to live were stopped.
Ann, who lives in Kirkdale, was forced to stop work years ago as she suffered with a number of debilitating conditions including Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Osteoporosis, which weakens her bones and means she regularly suffers breaks and fractures.
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A former care worker, Ms Smith relies on regular Personal Independence Payments and Employment Support Allowance to get by. So she was concerned when neither of those benefits were paid into her account last month.
She said: "I rely on that money so I was worried when it didn't go in. So I contacted the DWP."
On contacting the department, Ann was told that her benefits had stopped because according to their records, she had died in August. She said: "I couldn't believe it, I said well that's news to me. I even got sent a letter addressed to the executor of my will."
She added: "They haven't told me how they could make a mistake like this, no one even checked to see that I wasn't dead, they just stopped my benefits."
In order to prove that she was, in fact, not dead, Ann was forced to travel to a local job centre to provide identification. She added: "It's not easy for me to get around with my conditions, so my son had to come and help me." She also had support from a local benefits charity called Raise in sorting the problem out.
While Ann was obviously able to prove that she was not dead and get her benefits payments restarted, she was left without money for over a week.
She said: "It was absolutely awful, really hard. My condition means I need to have the heating on and the prices are going up all the time. I was left with no money."
Ann said she wanted to raise the issue as she has still not been given an explanation for how the DWP believed she was dead and because she doesn't want the same mistake to affect another vulnerable person.
She said: "I really hope this doesn't happen to someone else. I am lucky because I have got family who support me but imagine if this happened to someone who was on their own and they were left without any support?"
"This government needs to go, they don't care about any of us."
In response, a spokesperson for the Department of Work and Pensions spokesperson said: "We would like to apologise unreservedly to Ms Smith for the distress and inconvenience caused by this mistake.
“All action to correct her claim has been taken, and all benefit arrears have been paid to her.”
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