Staff at an Asda outlet have claimed that Britons are using the free school vouchers of their children to buy cigarettes and booze.
The worker from a Hull supermarket revealed that some parents even went so far as to abusing staff members when they were stopped from buying non-grocery items on their vouchers.
“One guy came up with three cases of Carling, no food or anything, and I refused the voucher,” the Asda employee told Hull Daily Mail.
“He said to me, ‘I spend enough on them t**ting kids as it is’.
“I just looked at him. I couldn’t believe he had said that to me, he was just so appalled that he couldn’t spend the voucher on the booze.
“People are just idiots. They’re selfish and greedy. It’s a big issue.”
The employee, who didn’t want to be named, added that “three or four customers per day” are trying to buy non-grocery things like Lego toys, cigarettes, and booze from the vouchers.
She said they can only stop people from doing this when the vouchers explicitly prohibit non-grocery items. And since some vouchers don’t say what items are prohibited, people can easily “take advantage” of them.
The vouchers, introduced to subsidize the food which kids would get if their schools were open, can be used at Morrisons, Waitrose, McColl’s, M&S, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Aldi.
The food vouchers, that are worth £15($18) a week, were launched after all schools were closed in the country on 20th March.
They were rolled out by a collaborative effort of international firm Edenred and the Department for Education.
A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: “We are clear that the free school meals vouchers are for parents and carers to spend on grocery items and should not be spent on anything else.
“We thank all supermarket staff for their help in ensuring that these vouchers are used appropriately to give food to children.”
Replaced!