A single mother feels ‘degraded’ after an Addiscombe Sainsbury’s wrongly refused to let her use government vouchers to purchase milk for her son on Monday.

Mother of two Rebecca Noakes, 25, qualifies for Healthy Start, a public health scheme providing low income parents with vouchers which can be used to pay for essential items, such as milk, fruit and vegetables, in registered stores.

When she tried to use four vouchers, each worth £3.10, to pay for a £10.85 bottle of formula milk for her 5-month-old son Eli, staff incorrectly told Miss Noakes that she could only use one voucher per transaction.

Healthy Start’s advice to retailers clearly states that ‘customers are allowed to use more than one voucher at a time’.

Despite Miss Noakes’ attempts to explain the situation, staff refused to sell her the milk using the vouchers, and she left empty handed.

Miss Noakes, of Colworth Road, said: “It's unfair and unjustifiable. I just don’t want any other families to have to face this kind of discrimination ever as it's a horrible feeling.

“I struggle with depression and anxiety, and struggle to get out to the shop sometimes. This just made me feel worse.

“This could have been the only option I had left to feed my son.

“I had to go elsewhere and use cash because I was unsure if the vouchers would work as they had scanned 3/4 of the vouchers before wrongly telling me they can only accept one voucher per transaction.

“Scanning the last voucher would have completed the transaction, but they point blank refused and put the milk back on the shelf.”

Miss Noakes, who has been using Healthy Start for two years, has faced difficulties paying with the vouchers in the past.

She says she frequently has to explain to Sainsbury’s staff that multiple vouchers can be used in a single transaction.

She added: “I always have an issue each time, until a manger or supervisor is called to approve the transaction.

“It’s like they make scene and publicly announce you are using vouchers - it's a very horrible, belittling feeling.

“My mum had been to this particular store two days prior to this incident to complain to a manger about the discrimination my sister and I face trying to use these vouchers.

“He assured her he would retrain his staff and promised it wouldn't happen again.”

A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “We have apologised to Rebecca for her experience.

“We have also reassured her we have processes in place to ensure customers can use their Healthy Start vouchers and we will make sure these are followed in future.”