Single mother worried about feeding her five children as Tesco freezes account

A single mother from South Wales is worried she won't be able to feed her five children this week after Tesco froze her bank account.

Sam Allen, 44, a student teaching assistant from Newport whose children are aged between seven and 13, was forced to borrow money from a neighbour to get packed lunch items to feed them at school on Monday after her Tesco Bank card was declined at the supermarket's checkouts on Sunday.

Ms Allen claims she spent around six hours trying to get through to Tesco's helpline on Saturday evening after receiving a text message about fraud on her account.

Then she was forced to go to a store to shop when her usual payment method online delivery would not work but found her card was declined.

She later found no money had been taken but says she was told she would have to wait up to 10 days for a new debit card.

She said: "It has caused a lot of inconvenience, especially as they told me through another text that chip and pin was working so I got a neighbour to take me to the supermarket.

"Then I was so angry when I got to the tills with my shopping for my card to be declined.

"I feel they've let me down completely. I have no access to my money. I can't pay bills or buy food.

"I'm quite lucky as I have food in the freezer for at home but after today I don't have the facility to feed my kids in school as their system pays money into the account by debit card which I can't do.

"I'm still concerned about food as I can't provide their school dinners for the rest of the week. I'm going to have to ask someone with a debit card if I can transfer money to them to pay it which I shouldn't have to do.

"Tesco keep apologising for the inconvenience but don't seem to be doing anything else."