A disabled woman refused benefits after being mistaken for an immigrant has been given a second chance to apply.

Officials at the Department for Work and Pensions have looked again at Holly Taylor’s case and believe she may be eligible because she is a dependent through her disability and has a carer, her mother.

They now admit there had been a mistake in connecting this to an immigration case.

Holly, 24, a stroke victim, of Mary Road, Deal, had lived in Holland for 14 years until last year and her two young children were born there, but she was born in the UK and has a British passport.

Her mother, Samantha Taylor, has battled with officials over the past year and repeatedly told them she was British.

She also said that bureaucrats had tried to ring Holly and said they got no answer. Holly has lost her speech. Ms Taylor said she had given her own number for them to use.

This week she thanked KentOnline's sister paper the East Kent Mercury for its efforts in exposing the story. She said: “The amount of times I’ve had to repeat myself to these people. One part of this organisation doesn’t know what the other is doing.”

But the DWP said it had not been swayed by our coverage of the story, or it being followed by national media, and that it had reconsidered her case before it got press attention.

A DWP spokesman said: “Decisions on eligibility for personal independence payment are made after consideration of all the evidence, including an assessment and information provided by the claimant and their GP.”

Eileen Rowbotham, Kent county councillor for Deal and Walmer, read our coverage of the story and offered to help.

She said: “I was very concerned and felt nobody should be in that situation. People are not always aware how councillors can help.”

Holly first became seriously ill in 2012 when she needed life-saving surgery after a severe brain condition. She then suffered a bleed in her brain last July and afterwards had a stroke. She now has to use a wheelchair.