Woman falsely accused of being dead

Rona Wilkes said she was "shocked" at the news

A widow who asked why her pension had been stopped was told that she was dead.

Rona Wilkes, 83, was then told she was an asylum seeker - despite being alive and well and living in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.

The Department for Works and Pensions described the incident as an "unfortunate" error caused by a computer glitch.

Ms Wilkes told the BBC: "I was really shocked when they told me.

'Intolerable'

"I gave them my name and address and they said to me, 'you're not going to like this - you're supposed to have died on 1 June.'"

Age Concern described the episode as "intolerable".

Marcus Green, from the charity, said: "The computer cannot be blamed.

"Someone has put that information in and we want to know who."

An apology has been promised, but had not arrived by Thursday.