By LUKE SALKELD

Last updated at 08:14 11 December 2007

When June Clarke walked again after six years in a wheelchair, the committed Christian put it down to the power of prayer.

But when she shared the good news with benefits officials, they refused to stop her incapacity allowance - telling her their computer "didn't have a button for miracles".

With the Government pledging to crack down on "sicknote Britain", it seems remarkable the 56-year-old received more than £3,500 she did not even want.

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Mrs Clarke, from Plymouth, slipped on a wet floor at her workplace in 2000. She badly damaged her hip, pelvis and spine and had to give up work and draw incapacity benefits as her symptoms worsened.

Her husband Stuart, 58, a pastor at Hooe Baptist Church, said that he prayed every day after the accident that God would "bring my wife back".

The prayer seemed to be answered when his wife attended a Christian conference in January last year.

Within hours, Mrs Clarke was able to fold away her wheelchair and stop taking painkillers. When she realised she was permanently cured four months later, she contacted the Government's Industrial Injury Department to put a stop to her benefits.

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But the department continued to give her £600 a month - and she ended up being paid £3,600 in incapacity benefits for a period when she was in perfect health.

"After I got healed in January 2006 I went to the doctor to check it out with him," she said yesterday.

"He said wait six months.

"But after four months I felt uncomfortable taking benefits when I didn't need them. I contacted the offices to ask to come off the benefits."

But officials told her that the system was unable to recognise an apparently miraculous recovery.

Mrs Clarke had been awarded an allowance for life and the computer wasn't programmed to allow the payments to end until her death.

"They said: 'We haven't got a button to push that says miracle'."

She then saw a government doctor, who was baffled about her recovery but declared her fully fit.

The allowance was stopped and Mrs Clarke has since been able to repay the money by working as a carer.

Mr Clarke said that he found the couple's battle with the benefits system amusing, if frustrating.

"We would have loved to have used the money for a good cause," he said.

"But it wasn't ours to spend. It can't be often that a government department gets a complaint about unwanted cash."

A spokesman from the Department for Work and Pensions said: "Each case is treated individually. When a customer contacts us to say they no longer require or need to claim benefits we ask for a letter of confirmation for security reasons."