Hey up! This can’t be right. Prisoners residing at His Majesty’s pleasure, claiming and getting state benefits? When they are already being housed, fed, and looked after at taxpayers’ expense? Something wrong here, methinks!
It has come to light (although the practice has been in place for years) that nearly 80 violent criminals in high-security hospitals, including rapists and murderers like Valdo Calocane, who murdered Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates in a rampage in Nottingham city centre in June 2023, are eligible for thousands of pounds in Universal Credit and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). Those in secure hospitals can amass a fortune through £390 a month Universal Credit payment. And if, say, they have a 20-year stretch ahead of them, consider what fortune they could amass. Let me tell you – I have done the maths. You are looking in the region of £93,000. And what of ESA? Can these criminals be said to be in ‘employment’?
On the whole, families of victims do not do very well when it comes to finances from the state. So, it cannot be right that these criminals are getting taxpayer-funded payments when they have no expenses. Many victims struggle to access effective long-term care and support. The support offered to victims and bereaved families is inadequate at best.
Julian Hendy, from the Hundred Families charity, which supports families after mental health related homicides, said: “It’s indefensible for convicted dangerous offenders who have committed the most serious of crimes to be rewarded with benefit payments.”
Whoever produced this hair-brained idea needs their head seeing to. Most people who live a decent and law-abiding life face daily struggles of how to pay their rent and put food on the table. And that is those who are actually in work. We hear a lot these days about people who must choose between eat or heat. That is, they cannot afford to do both. They can either go without food or being warm and comfortable in their home.
It therefore comes as a slap in the face to those doing their best to make a life to know that convicted criminals who get their bed and board for free will still be able to boast a fat bank account. Where is the justice in that?
