by marky No.1 » Fri Sep 17, 2010 10:33 am
And talking about benefits - watched blinded PC Rathband on TV this morning. He receives £18.95p per week:
The police officer blinded by Raoul Moat has described the level of mobility payment he has been awarded as unfair. Pc David Rathband was shot in the face and chest by the gunman on 4 July.
A spokesman for the department for Work and Pensions said: “We are indebted to Pc Rathband for his bravery and we want to ensure he receives all the benefits he is entitled to.”
Meanwhile
The self-confessed Raoul Moat “fan” who took three of her kids to the killer’s funeral is raking in benefits totalling £33,000 a year.
Mother-of-eight Teresa Bystram, 53, paid for the trip out of her bumper handouts in tax credits, income support, housing and child benefits and council tax allowance. The taxpayers’ cash spent on jobless Bystram is equivalent to a salary of more than £41,000 before deductions.That’s at least £6,000 more than that earned by officers like PC David Rathband.
And
Former Chief Constable Peter Neyroud earned £195,000 a year as boss of the NPIA, whose employment package included a Westminster apartment — in a block that has a gym, pool, sauna and valet parking — within walking distance of the agency offices. It cost the taxpayer £23,200 in 2008-09. (Despite living within commuting distance of the office).
As a perk of the job, the flat has an income tax demand of approximately £9,000 a year, which the NPIA confirmed it has paid for a number of years.
Conclusion
This reminds me of the wounded amputee soldier who received a few grand while an MOD secretary who slipped on a banana skin (or whatever the story was) was awarded tens of thousands. Senior police managers call this kind of thing ‘signposting’. It clearly shows what we can expect, as we go unarmed, into dangerous situations which may end badly for us.
I predict an apology and withdrawal of the assessment figure. It’s a shame that PC Rathband had to go on Twitter to publicise the issue. As usual, the so-called ‘top’ echelons meet in full circle with the ‘bottom’ of the pile while the rest of us pay for it, leaving genuine cases abandoned.
PC Rathband’s statement
Today Pc Rathband said: ‘I’m really annoyed. For some reason they seem to think that I don’t need that much help getting around.
‘If only they knew how hard it is being blind. I need help just to get to the end of my garage. Each day is a challenge to get about.
‘As a blind person you have to learn a route in your mind, if it’s walking to the shops and back, and it’s taken me six weeks just to do that.
‘How on earth does that make me mobile?
‘I’m going to appeal the decision. I don’t know if I’ll win or not but this is a point of principle.’
As for Teresa Bystram, she will carry on regardless. I doubt anyone will question her benefits. And Neyroud? having dodged the streets for a decade of two – just been appointed as head of a new ‘police leadership’ committee, no doubt at vast expense.
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