A 76-year-old woman survived on cheese left over from her husband's funeral after her pension was stopped because officials thought she had died.
Diane Geraghty, from Suffolk, stopped receiving payments shortly after her husband's death on 20 April, as reported by the Lowestoft Journal.
Mrs Geraghty said she lost two stone during the six-week ordeal.
The Department for Work and Pensions have now backdated payments to Mrs Geraghty and "apologised unreservedly".
Mrs Geraghty, from Lowestoft, receives a state pension and disability living allowance of about £160 a week, as well as half of her husband's pension, and was concerned when payments stopped in early May.
Unaware of foodbanks, she said her only food was a "couple of slices of cheese a day" from an unopened block of Cheddar she brought home from the funeral.
"I just felt so weak," she said. "Some days I was crying. Other days I was confused and thinking to myself 'keep going because of [my] little doggies'.
"In the end I couldn't take them out for a walk because I was too weak and thought people would think I'm drunk.
"I thank God that my husband's chairlift was still there because I don't think I would have made it up the stairs."
She decided to keep her plight a secret from friends and two sons.
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It was only when a man saw her in the garden towards the end of June and took her to a foodbank that she received supplies other than cheese - three bags of shopping, two for her and one for her dogs.
At around the same time her family received a letter from the DWP claiming she had died, she said.
Mrs Geraghty said she was now eating "little and often" until her stomach returned to normal.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: "We apologise unreservedly for the disruption to Mrs Geraghty's State Pension and Disability Living Allowance payments, which resulted from an administrative error.
"We issued an arrears payment on 2 July as soon as we became aware of the problem and the correct payment schedule has now been restored.
"We are carrying out an urgent case review to learn any lessons from this and ensure it does not happen again."