Council apologises after wrongly telling woman her husband was dead

Joan Woodruff, 86, received a letter from Oxfordshire County Council warning that, following his death, all pension payments and other benefits for 'the late Brian Woodruff' should be stopped.

Mr Woodruff, 79, lives at the Julie Richardson Nursing Home in Banbury, where he receives care for his dementia.

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He has been at the home for the past four years after a career in the motor trade.

The couple have been married for 51 years and have lived at their current address in Beech Road, Eynsham, for 23 of those.

Mrs Woodruff said: "It's pretty dreadful what's happened.

"I received the letter and it was dated December 6 and I knew he was alive because I'd seen him since then.

"I rang the council straight away and they told me it was a massive error and offered their apologies.

"They're going to send me a letter of apology but it's a bit pointless really.

"The letter said to inform the Department for Work and Pensions to stop payments of state pension and any other benefits 'the late resident' was receiving.

"I have no idea at all why this letter would be sent, but I don't want this to happen again to anybody else."

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Born and raised in Botley, Mr Woodruff lived in Oxfordshire all his life.

Mrs Woodruff, who was born in Scarborough, moved to Oxfordshire when she was 20 years old.

The couple met in 1967 when he was working for City Motors in Oxford, and were married a year later.

Mrs Woodruff recalled: "I was a parts lady, and used to deliver parts for cars and I met Brian through that.

"He was 28 and I was a bit older and had three children from a previous marriage.

"Brian took on the role of stepfather to the children so well and was great with them and me."

Mr Woodruff worked at City Motors for a total of 32 years then worked as a partsman at Mudie Bond in Cassington for another 18 years.

The couple never had children of their own, but were parents to Mrs Woodruff's own children, Patricia (now 66), Angela, 64, and Tony, 63.

Mrs Woodruff now has six grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

She said: "When we married we lived in Oxford on St Mary's Road and then we moved to Cowley."

After ten years in Cowley, the couple moved to Eynsham, then to Cassington to care for Mr Woodruff's mother before finally going back to their current home.

Mrs Woodruff worked until she was 80, including at Radio Rentals and BT.

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Mr Woodruff suffered a series of strokes shortly before he was due to retire which led to him getting vascular dementia.

This prompted his move into Julie Richardson home where Mrs Woodruff said her husband 'requires constant care'.

A spokesperson for Oxfordshire County Council said: "I can confirm that a letter was sent to Mrs Woodruff, which incorrectly referred to her 'late' husband.

"When we learnt about this, the member of staff who had made the mistake immediately offered a sincere verbal apology to the recipient; this was followed up with a letter of apology on the same day.

"Alongside this a senior member of staff has spoken to the lady to apologise for this error and the distress caused.

"Such an occurrence of this type is rare and we have taken steps to review our processes to ensure that it does not happen again.

"Our subsequent investigation has identified the cause as human error and for this we are deeply sorry."