* YOU BEEN SNAP* WADAU WANGU PAMOJA NA UBUSY NILIO NAO.YANI NIMEONA NISIMAME HAPA KIDOGO ILI NIWAAMBIENI MACHACHE KUHUSU HII HABARI " YA HAWA WA WILI MKE NA MME ,WALOAMUA KUJIUWA ,KISA WAMELAZIMISHWA KUISHI KWA PAUNDI £ 57.50. KWA WIKI ZA BURE NA NYUMBA PIA WAMESHAPEWA BURE, HIVI WANACHEZEA MAISHA AU ? HEBU NYIE MLIOPO TANZANIA AFRICAN NIAMBIENI KAMA KUNA KUPEWA HUKU NA ISITOSHE MAJI NA UMEME UPO 24/7 TENA NDANI YA NYUMBA YAKO" KWELI SIJUI WATAMUAMBIA MUNGU NINI WATAKAPOMFIKIA"

*MKILETEWA HAPA NA FLORA LYIMO DESIGNER*

• Every month the couple walked 12 miles to a soup kitchen to get free food
• Charity said they 'slipped through the net'
• Mark and Helen Mullins kept food in plastic bags in their garden because they couldn't afford a fridge
• Driven to despair at having to live off £57.50 a week
• Poverty-stricken pair found dead at home last Friday

A newly married couple forced to live on £57 a week killed themselves in despair after being 'abandoned' by social services, their friends claimed yesterday.

The bodies of Mark and Helen Mullins were found lying side by side at their run-down home in an apparent suicide pact.

News of the tragedy emerged yesterday as friends told how they had been forced to live 'hand to mouth', making a weekly 12-mile trip to a soup kitchen on foot after Mrs Mullins' benefits were stopped 18 months ago.

Mark and Helen Mullins: Lived in just one room of their run-down home;

Tragic: Mark and Helen Mullins could not face another freezing winter on the poverty line, according to neighbours;

The couple were given free vegetables at the soup kitchen in Coventry each Sunday, which they boiled into a broth on a camping stove.

They lived in just one room of their terraced house to save on heating costs and could not afford a fridge so kept their food in plastic bags in the garden.

They are believed to have killed themselves after 18 months of struggling to survive on the £57.50 Jobseeker's Allowance payment Mr Mullins, a 48-year-old former Army physical training instructor, was able to claim.

Their heart-breaking plight was revealed yesterday, five days after their bodies were discovered at their council house in Bedworth, Warwickshire.

Charity workers who befriended the couple said society had allowed them to 'slip through the net'.

Mrs Mullins, 59, suffered from learning difficulties and social services are understood to have taken her 12-year-old daughter away last year after she was considered to be incapable of looking after her.

As a result, her child benefits were stopped but she was ineligible to claim Jobseeker's Allowance because she was not deemed fit to work.

She was also told she did not qualify for incapacity benefit because she had not been officially diagnosed with a medical condition.

Mr Mullins was his wife's full-time carer. He fought to get a carer's allowance but was told he could not claim until she was diagnosed with a disorder.

Run-down: The property that Mark and Helen Mullins shared as they lived on £57.50 per week;

Officers discovered their bodies after neighbours reported they had not been seen for some days. Kervin Julien, who runs the Salvation Army soup kitchen in Coventry used by the couple, said: 'The question needs to be asked – why was it they felt they had no one else to turn to?