MELANIE Wright's future looked set fair. She and her boyfriend, Robert Phillips, were having a baby.

They were about to become a family together.

In one terrible moment, that future was wrecked. Robert was killed in a road accident on his way to work.

It is hard to imagine the shock and grief Melanie has suffered. Suddenly the life she had mapped out was ripped into pieces. She has had to rebuild from scratch.

Hope emerged from the heartache with the arrival of Poppy, seven months after Robert's death. This little girl will give Melanie immense joy.

But any single parent knows that bringing up a child alone is a mammoth task. To do so while still grieving for a loved one makes it harder still.

Melanie needs all the help she can get. But on top of everything else, she is on the breadline. At the moment, she is barely getting by on benefits.

It need not have been like this. Melanie is due significant compensation from insurers Direct Line, but the company has yet to pay a penny.

Insurance companies are invariably quick to take our premiums, but are often much slower in paying out, as many of North Yorkshire's flood victims know.

Direct Line's advertising shows its telephone zipping to the rescue of people in a crisis. The reality, in this instance, is very different.

The company says it must wait for the police report. That is a very thin excuse. The police have already reported, both to the court when the other driver involved in the accident was prosecuted, and to the inquest.

It is shameful that in such a straightforward case, Direct Line has not even made an interim payment to Melanie. We urge the company to pay up and apologise.

Updated: 09:47 Friday, September 26, 2003