A family of seven was left with no food, hot water or heating over the Jubilee bank holiday weekend. Mum Sarah Brown has spoken out about the distressing ordeal, which took place after her PIP payment was wrongly recalled by the DWP.
The 33-year-old mum lives with her partner Stephen and their five children, one of which is just eight months old. She was expecting her payment to go into her bank account on the morning of Wednesday, June 1, but it never arrived.
Over the course of the four-day weekend the family was unable to top up their smart metre to put on gas and electricity - which they weren't able to shower for days. Sarah and Stephen even went without meals at times to make sure what little food they had in the house would feed their children, Lancs Live reports.
Sarah explained how 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 and that the rest of the family went to bed fully clothed in order to stay warm. She has shared her story with CumbriaLive in a bid to highlight the damaging effects not receiving PIP payments on time can have on families.
After spending most of the day on the phone with the Department for Work and Pensions, the Workington mum was told there had been a mix-up with her payment, meaning it had been recalled. And it would take five working days to fix the issue.
This meant that the family were left with no money over the four day bank holiday weekend. Sarah said: "I'm on Personal Independence Payments and I get paid four weekly and the payment was due on the third. 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."
Sarah was eventually told the DWP had processed her payment over what she normally is allocated, so then recalled the cash. However, this meant it would take five days to fix leaving the family stuck.
Sarah wasn't even able to access the food bank for an emergency package because it was closed. She continued: "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 has now decided to take it to tribunal. When Sarah spoke to CumbriaLive on Sunday (June 5) she had been without gas and electricity since Tuesday.
Reluctantly, Sarah appealed on Facebook to see if anyone could help - something she said left her embarrassed. 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 all of us."
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.”
