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ParentPay website unavailable for school meal payments ParentPay website unavailable for school meal payments
(35 minutes later)
The website of payment firm ParentPay is currently unavailable, meaning parents cannot transfer funds for school meals and trips.The website of payment firm ParentPay is currently unavailable, meaning parents cannot transfer funds for school meals and trips.
The company normally serves more than 5,500 schools in 200 local authorities, helping about 1.5m families.The company normally serves more than 5,500 schools in 200 local authorities, helping about 1.5m families.
The company said it was "affected by a national internet connectivity issue - impacting some users. This is out of our control and we'll update you." The company said it was affected "by a national internet connectivity issue - impacting some users. This is out of our control and we'll update you."
It added that payments had been suspended until the issue was resolved. Some parents said their children were unable to buy food due to the glitch.
Some parents expressed concern on social media that their children would go hungry without the money to pay for lunch. ParentPay said payments had been suspended until the issue was resolved, but said it currently couldn't offer a timescale for when that might be.
There were some reports that the service's mobile app was still working. Scepticism
One parent, Victoria Lew, said on Twitter she had been trying to access her account for two hours.
"What do [the] kids do for lunch?" she asked, adding that she had been unable to get through to the company on the phone.
Charlotte Banks said on Facebook that neither of her sons had been able to buy food.
"This is getting ridiculous now. Seems to be every few days there are issues with this site," she said.
People also expressed scepticism about the company's explanation for the outage.
Heidi Burrows said: "The only company who appears to have national internet connectivity are ParentPay, so I think you may want to adjust your wording as many of us work in big firms relying on internet and no one else is having this issue!"
What is ParentPay?What is ParentPay?