Category: investigations

INVESTIGATION: DISABLED PEOPLE NEGLECTED

Poverty has risen dramatically over the decade. Almost one in five people in Scotland now live in poverty, and for children the situation is worse, with one in four in poverty. The use of food banks doubles when Universal Credit is rolled out, homelessness increased, crime rates are up, as well as hospital waiting lists. The UK government says austerity is now over. It expects to lift the freeze on working age benefits in April 2020 in line with inflation and says public spending increased this year by 4.1 per cent.

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JOURNALISTIC INVESTIGATION BY THE FERRET

“I’ve had the misfortune of spending time with women who’ve had to give up breastfeeding after six weeks due to malnutrition, because they’re getting so few calories they’re not able to produce breast milk. I’ve had the misfortune of sitting with a father of four who attempted to take his life twice within a period of 18 months because of a 14 per cent deduction to his housing benefit, because of a spare bedroom. I mean, that is how brutal it gets,” says Gurr holding on to a bunnet he’s wearing so it doesn’t blow away.

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INVESTIGATION by BILL HEANEY

Mental health is not a vote catcher. Sufferers are often stigmatized rather than given the assistance they require. Mr Muir said: “Ever since I have been in Dumbarton, it has been alleged that the health board and the council have been corrupt, with officers walking away from the area with large salaries and pensions,whilst covering up mistakes.” He added: “I have found the legal authorities unjust too with it being very rare for a public sector employee to be prosecuted and the police intolerably slow to investigate crimes.”
Like a remarkably high number of people, Andrew considers West Dunbartonshire Council to be a basket case. His views about the Health Board not being fit for purpose appear to have been borne out this week when the Health Secretary, Jeanne Freeman, put that organisation into special measures, which means top officials are being sent in to run it properly. This could happen soon to the Council, which is forever at the centre of controversy, covering up scandals and cutting off communications with journalists anxious to find out what they are up to.

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LUCRATIVE BUSINESS OF LOOKING AFTER ‘NAUGHTY’ CHILDREN

As soon as I applied online for a brochure, eager Luke, the portfolio manager, called to hard-sell the investment. Caring for these children is highly profitable, he said, with each child worth at least £2,500 and up to £5,500 a week for the multiply disabled, abused and damaged. “The naughtier children pay more,” he explained, with a bit of a laugh – though “naughty” might not be in the official social care lexicon. There are, he said, long waiting lists of children needing places. He rattled through the figures: their four-bed homes will make £214,000 a year profit at 75% occupancy and a whacking great £624,000 profit at full-bed occupancy. The brochure breaks down all the costs: staff at £232,100, food at £12,600 and so on.

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