A mum who was owed £75 worth of school meal vouchers has finally had her money paid, after weeks of battling to get them.

Anna Birkett, whose son attends Scotby School near Carlisle, has been battling since April 27 to get the gift vouchers she was owed via the free school meals system.

Since April Miss Birkett has been redeeming her codes through the Edenred UK website, but never received the gift cards to use.

The free school meals voucher system was set up to deliver support during the coronavirus pandemic.

Edenred UK are working with the Department for Education to deliver supermarket vouchers to those families where schools are not able to make food available directly to families.

Parents receive support in the form of an eCode that can be redeemed online for a selection of supermarket eGift cards if the school has a working address for the parent.

Miss Birkett explained: “I’d been getting the codes and redeeming them but had not been receiving the gift cards to use.

“I was owed £75 and I couldn’t get in touch with them.

“They were not answering any of my emails, not answering any of the schools emails and I couldn’t find a phone number to contact them. I was stuck with £75 on gift cards that I hadn’t received so couldn’t use."

After numerous attempts to contact Edenred UK, Miss Birkett asked the school to get involved to see if they were able to help in any way.

But they too were unable to make contact with the firm and move things forward for the family.

“The school have been brilliant, I gave them all my details and they checked everything and were fantastic.” continued Miss Birkett.

“But the company just ignored them too.

“We’ve heard in different parts of the country it’s the same too.”

After weeks of failed attempts at receiving gift cards when choosing Morrisons as the supermarket, the single mum swapped to Asda but still had the same problem.

After battling for weeks for the gift cards to be redeemed, Miss Birkett contacted the News & Star. Within days of making contact, the gift cards were paid.

She said: “I would redeem the code they sent to order the £15 gift card for my choice of supermarket. Until Thursday I was owed £75. It’s been extremely hard. I’m a single mum to a 10-year-old boy.

“I’m a key worker but I have been off since March 28 after contracting coronavirus which then turned into pneumonia and other infections.

"Having to fight the virus and having to fight for Edenred to give me the gift cards has been horrible. I’m lucky I have great parents who have helped me with money for food shopping and the school has been amazing.”

Numerous attempts were made to contact Edenred UK, however they failed to provide a comment for publication.