Elderly ladies have been refused their pensions by what will soon be a town's only dispenser.

On Friday Barclays in Ongar will close its doors for a final time, 109 years after it first opened.

Its departure leaves the Post Office as the only place for retired people to withdraw their pensions.

In the year since the Post Office moved to its current location on the High Street at the end of last year, some OAPs have been refused cash.

Amy Day, 80, said: "I draw my pension out once a week.

"It was March 2018 when it started.

"He (the postmaster) told me that he wasn't given enough money and said I should come back another day.

"It happened twice in one week. I tore him off a strip.

"It is a nuisance."

While Mrs Day's husband drives her to the Post Office, others do not find it so easy to get around.

She added: "Another lady I personally know went in a taxi from Sainsbury's and it cost her £4.

"He told her to come back that afternoon, but she couldn't."

According to Mrs Day, the town's postmaster told her Post Office HQ had not sent him enough cash to cover the pensions.

A spokesperson for the Post Office said: "We are concerned to hear about this, and have spoken to our postmaster at the Ongar branch.

"We are pleased to say that the branch, like all our 11,500 Post Offices across the UK, is fully able to provide important access to cash for the Ongar community – both through Post Office Card Accounts, for things like pensions and benefits, and through every day High Street bank accounts.”