Grandmother starves to death in Britain

LONDON, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- A 79-year-old English grandmother starved to death because her council home had no letterbox, so her pension could not be delivered.

Ivy Allen, the mother of 10 and grandmother of 30, was found dead at her one-bedroom council bungalow in Warrington, Cheshire. It is believed she had almost nothing to eat or drink in the last three months of her life.

Her benefits book and checks had not been delivered for months because a new front door which had been fitted last February had no letter-box.

Council spokesman Bob Williams said Allen refused to allow workers access to her home to fit a letter-box in the door, the London Telegraph reported.

He said Allen told the council last April that she no longer needed its support. Two months later she was admitted to hospital suffering from malnutrition, but discharged herself.

"If we had known her benefits were cut and the care visits had stopped we would have been round there in a flash," said Allen's daughter Sandra Murphy. "A simple phone call would have saved her life."