A family were forced to spend days unable to shower or eat properly after an error saw their Personal Independent Payment wrongly recalled.
Sarah Brown, her partner Stephen and five children expected the PIP payment to be directly paid into Sarah's bank account on June 1. But the family were later told by the Department for Work and Pensions there had been a mix-up with the payment and it had been recalled.
This left the family without any money over the four day bank holiday as the DWP told Sarah it would take five working days to fix the issue. Sarah, 33, said: "I'm on Personal Independence Payments and I get paid four weekly and the payment was due on the third.
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"They told me I'd be paid on the first because of the bank holiday so I would get it early. I looked in my bank to see if it had definitely gone in and it hadn't. I phoned the DWP, I phoned four times that day and they all said different things."
The recalled payment meant the family, from Workington, were unable to top up their smart metre to put on gas and electricity which meant they could not shower for days. Sarah and Stephen even went without meals at times to make sure what little food they had in the house could feed their children.
Sarah said she was forced to wrap her eight-month-old baby in clothes in the cot so the child wouldn't go cold during the night. She said: "They said there was nothing they can do about it until they sort the payment.
"So I said you're going to see me stuck with five children and an eight-month-old baby with no gas, no electricity. That was my shopping money and my gas."
Sarah shared the family's story with LancsLive to highlight the damaging effects not receiving PIP payments on time can have on families. She was even forced to appeal for help on Facebook - something she said was embarrassing for her.
She said: "It's not my error, it's their error. We were so stuck. All the food banks were shut. We hadn't had a bath or shower since Tuesday.
"We put money on the meter but that went into debt on the gas. We had no food, we had bread and butter. We were finding things in the cupboard like tins to try and make something.
"I felt like I was begging. To put an appeal out on Facebook was quite embarrassing. All that wasn't my fault and on day four we managed to get a shower this morning."
A DWP spokesperson said: “Due to a change in her circumstances, Ms Brown’s PIP payment amount has recently changed. In order to prevent an overpayment Ms Brown’s latest PIP payment was recalled. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. Ms Brown has now been paid her PIP award in full and her monthly Universal Credit payment was unaffected.”
