The delays in fixing the Barclays IT issues, which began on Friday, were worsened by the outage coinciding with January payday and the deadline for self-assessment tax returns
Barclays has been blasted after advising customers to contact food banks if they need help after a major IT glitch left some locked out of their accounts.
As the outage carried on for a second day today, large numbers of the banking giant’s customers reported being left unable to access their money, leaving them unable to buy shopping, pay bills or withdraw cash. On social media site X, the Barclays UK Help account told customers: “Are there any friends or family who can offer support?”.
The account then posted links to the Trussell Trust, a charity that runs food banks, and Citizens Advice. The advice has led to criticism from some social media users.
One, @sueberry1954, said: “Did Rachel from accounts teach them how to handle customers because this reaction from Barclays is shocking!” @Chef_Lee_, said: “Giving advice to go to a food bank on Friday night just shows how out of touch they are, not to mention you need a referral #BarclaysDown #Barclays.”
Carla Jayne @carlajayne881 added: “Thousands of us are without Electric, gas, food, baby formula yet no one is making a big deal about it? As long as @BarclaysUK are warm & fed, who cares…”
The delays in fixing the IT issues, which began on Friday, were worsened by the outage coinciding with January payday for many workers and the deadline for self-assessment tax returns, leaving some unable to make payments to HMRC.
One upset Barclays customer took to social media to share the impact of the outage, writing: “Due to you Barclays I’m left without money. Had a food shop due for delivery this morning which now will get cancelled, leaving my four kids with no food. It’s a joke as (it is) my money.” Another said: “How can I eat and keep warm if I can’t get to my funds?”
Barclays has said its ATMs are unaffected, but confirmed some features on its app and online banking service have been impacted, causing issues for payments both in and out of accounts. In a message to customers, a statement said: “We’re really sorry – we’re still working to fix the issues that started yesterday.
“This is taking longer than we’d like – thank you for bearing with us. You can: Use your cards. Some customers may be experiencing issues making payments – we’re working to fix this as soon as we can.
“Your balance may be incorrect and some payments you made or are expecting to receive may not show. Please do not make the payments again. Please bear with us while we correct this. As soon as we have another update, we’ll let you know here.”