Vulnerable Lancashire families sent 'faulty' food voucher codes
- Published
Trina Lawrie says getting the voucher then being unable to use it "felt like a slap in the face"
Vulnerable families in Lancashire have been left frustrated after vouchers to pay for food and bills failed to work.
The tokens, worth up to £80, were distributed to households in need as part of the £170m Covid Winter Grant Scheme.
One mother said that being offered the vouchers and not being able to use them was a "slap in the face".
Lancashire County Council said it was "urgently investigating" issues affecting a small number of families.
But the authority insisted that no families will lose out as they have until 16 April to use the vouchers, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Families of children who receive free school meals are unaffected, it said.
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Trina Lawrie, a mother-of-three, from Morecambe, took to social media when she discovered the 16-digit code required to redeem the token was missing a number and soon learned that 60 other families had also been sent faulty codes.
She said, at first, it was a nice surprise to receive the vouchers but that was soon followed by frustration at being unable to cash them in.
"They came out of the blue and many families will have seen them as a way of getting out of a hole.
"So it was almost like we had had £80 dangled in front of us and then told that we couldn't have it - it felt like a bit of a slap in the face."
She added: "The worst thing was there were no contact details on the letter for if you had a problem."
Lancashire County Council said it was "urgently investigating" the issue
A spokeswoman for the Conservative-run Lancashire County Council said: "We've been told some people who are eligible for Covid winter grant payments have had a problem accessing their vouchers. We are very sorry about this.
"The number of people affected is small, but we appreciate how worrying it will be for those who are so please rest assured we are investigating this urgently."
She added: "We are confident the issue will be resolved soon."
Edenred which supplies the codes for the vouchers said it was "sorry" about the issues which it said was "caused by an error when the council distributed the codes over the Easter holiday".
It added: "We are working with the council to ensure the codes are resent as soon as possible."
Labour county councillor for Lancaster East, Lizzi Collinge, said it was "totally unacceptable" while cookery author and campaigner against food poverty Jack Monroe tweeted the situation was "absolutely abysmal".
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