Barclays tells customers to go to friends, family or food banks after people left ‘homeless’ amid IT glitch
1 February 2025, 20:10
A civil servant and her family have been left "homeless" due to ongoing IT issues affecting Barclays customers, as the bank urges people to ask friends, family or food banks for help.
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Hundreds of people have claimed they aren't able to access their money as a result of the IT glitch, which started on Friday.
Paola Mereu, 39, sold the house her and her husband and their two daughters, aged one and seven, lived in at Uxbridge and were meant to buy their new home in West Sussex on Friday.
However, Mrs Mereu is one of the hundreds of people affected by the major IT glitch which has seen customers unable to make payments or access their accounts.
In a statement, the bank has apologised to customers, saying they are facing "ongoing technical issues that are impacting our customers' accounts".
Mrs Mereu told the PA news agency: "We drove down to (West Sussex on Friday) and we had all our things in a moving van and were waiting outside and unfortunately, around one o'clock, my solicitor calls and says Barclays is having some issues and we are unable to complete the sale.
"So we sold our house - we had the money from that - but we were unable to complete the other part of the sale so we are essentially homeless.
"We waited until five o'clock, Barclays still didn't fix it, so we literally have no house and it is still not fixed."
The family are currently staying with Mrs Mereu's mother in London and the moving van with all their belongings is on her driveway.
"It's crazy, we are hoping the issues are resolved by Monday," she said.
"It took us so long to get this dream house and yesterday was meant to be the happiest day of our lives and instead we ended up homeless.
"I feel like I am in a TV series episode."
While the bank has apologised for the issue, some customers were angered by their handling of the situation.
When one X user posted that her household 'has no access to money,' the Barclays UK Help account responded by asking "Are there any friends or family who can offer support?"
When the woman said she didn't have any family or friends she can turn to and said the reply was 'so triggering', the help account posted some links to a charity that runs food banks and Citizens Advice.
Other frustrated customers are now reaching out to Barclays support via social media.
"Due to you Barclays I'm left without money had a food shop due for delivery this morning which now will get cancelled, leave my four kids with no food it's a joke as (it is) my money," one X user claimed.
Another added: "How can I eat and keep warm if I can't get to my funds?"
Another claimed: "Well I've just had to put all my shopping back in Tesco never been so embarrassed in my life .. as can't access my own money."
One mother claimed she was unable to buy milk for her baby due to the outage.
"My four-month-old is out of milk powder and screaming for a feed and I still haven't been paid," she said.
She added: "I've been in tears for hours."
On Friday, the bank apologised to customers, saying they were "currently facing intermittent errors" with their payment system.
"We're working to fix this as quickly as possible," they added.
According to outage tracker Down Detector, hundreds of customers claim they are experiencing interrupted services and missing funds, with some alleging they have had no access to their money for nearly 24 hours.
The outage came on the same day as January payday for many British workers.
