It Takes an Extended Family, and a Village, to …..
EXCLUSIVE: GRAN STARVES TO DEATH
Ivy, 79, abandoned by family, friends and social servicesA GRAN starved to death because her council home had no letterbox so her pension could not be delivered.
Penniless Ivy Allen, 79, had barely drunk or eaten in the last three months of her life.
None of her 10 children, 30 grandkids, social services or pensions officials noticed she was dying at her home in Warrington, Cheshire. Grandson Anthony Bradbury, 24, said: “I can’t forgive myself.”
Ivy Allen’s pension was sent back each week after the council gave her a new front door but failed to put a letterbox into it.
Penniless Ivy, 79, starved to death. There was not a scrap of food in the house when her emaciated body was found. None of the welfare agencies, nor her 10 children or 30 grandchildren were aware of her plight.
She was left broke when the door of her one-bedroom council bungalow was replaced without a post box. Her benefits book and giro cheques were returned by Royal Mail to the pensions office.
Officials there failed to tell anyone that she was not receiving any money.
Ivy’s family admit their failings in the months leading to her death but they are also angry that she was allowed to slip through the welfare net.
