Barclays customers continue to face issues after major IT outage

Ruth, 39, a self-employed cleaner, told BBC News she had been trying to access money with her partner from their savings account for several hours so she could buy milk for a baby and food for five other children she is looking after at home.

“We need the money to do shopping, our money is all in savings,” she explained.

“I’ve got my granddaughter here who’s 11 months old, also a one-year-old, two-year-old, 12-year-old, 13-year-old, 15-year-old all at home.”

She said she had been able to get some help from her teenage daughter, but said others might not be so fortunate.

“There could be many single mums in the same situation with no access to money,” she told the BBC.

Barclays is one of the UK’s largest banks, with over 20 million UK retail customers. It says it processes over 40% of the UK’s credit and debit card transactions.

Website downdetector, which monitors outages, says thousands of people have flagged problems, external at the bank. On Saturday morning, it showed more than 4,000 issues had been reported with Barclays, more than double the number reported on Friday.

Taking to social media, one mother said she could not buy milk for her baby due to the issues at Barclays.

“My four-month-old is out of milk powder and screaming for a feed and I still haven’t been paid,” she said.

“I’ve been in tears for hours.”