An elderly disabled woman claims a faulty stairlift has left her feeling like a prisoner in her own home for almost 10 years.

Jennifer Saunders, 70, of Charles Busby Court, at the Royal British Legion Village in Aylesford, says she lives in constant fear that she will not be able to get out or back in to her upstairs flat.

A new wheelchair platform lift was installed in 2005 after the Kent Messenger reported that the old one was repeatedly breaking down, sometimes leaving Mrs Saunders stranded halfway up the stairs.

But she says the new stairlift is no better, breaking up to four times a week and sometimes not working for several weeks at a time.

In May it suddenly jolted, throwing her backwards and causing her to badly bruise her back.

Mrs Saunders said: “I live in constant fear that I won't be able to get out of my flat. When it is broken I feel like a prisoner in my own home.”

Having moved to the sheltered accommodation in June 2004, she suffered an ankle injury a month later, which left her unable to use the stairs unaided.

In 2010, Mrs Saunders broke her ankle again which meant she could not use the stairs without the lift.

She said: “When it isn’t working I can only use the stairs when the warden is here to help, but they only work until 4pm and are not her at weekends.”

Mrs Saunders stressed that she did not blame the managers of the property for the problem, but claims the replacement stair lift was never fixed when it first broke down and was under warranty.

She added: “If you bought a car and it continually broke down you’d expect to get a full refund.”

Mrs Saunders claims that engineers working for Housing 21 have said that it would cost too much to install a new lift.

No one from Housing 21, which runs the accommodation, could be reached for a comment.