Disabled hit with a £500m benefits bill
Sick and disabled people face having to pay the Government more than £500
million after it emerged that they had been overpaid incapacity benefits
(Anthony Browne writes).
The Department for Work and Pensions admitted that it had been overpaying
benefits to disabled people for the past five years.
The overpayment has doubled from £60 million in 2000 to £120 million in 2006,
and totals £520 million.
Out of the total, £340 million is because of official error, £120 million is
blamed on disabled people making mistakes and £60 million is the result of
fraud.
Husband charged
The husband of a special constable stabbed to death has been charged with her
murder. Fadi Nasri, 33, was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the death
of Nisha Patel-Nasri, 29. Mr Nasri was charged along with Roger Lesley, 37.
Both men will appear before West London Magistrates today.
Met chief confident
Sir Ian Blair has said that he will be “exonerated” of lying over the fatal
shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. In an interview with the New
Statesman, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner said he had total
confidence that he will be cleared of misleading the public about the death
of the innocent Brazilian in 2005.
Bill scrapes through
David Cameron has failed to throw out a Bill as plans for voluntary groups and
private companies to run probation services scraped through in the Commons
by 25 votes. The Conservatives, who had previously backed the legislation,
joined Labour rebels in opposing the Offender Management Bill.
Cameron in Israel
David Cameron arrived in Jerusalem for his most important overseas trip since
becoming Tory leader. He will talk with Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime
Minister, and members of his Cabinet and meet Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian
President, in Ramallah. A close aide said: “This is a learning exercise.”
Bishops opposed
The Church of England policy on “gay marriage” was in disarray after liberals
and conservatives formed an alliance to oppose a statement made by bishops,
which said that lay people in civil partnerships should not be asked about
their relationship. One Synod member called it a “recipe for confusion”.
Disorder decision
Philip Rogers, 54, of Portsmouth, who called three Spanish women “bloody
foreigners”, must do community service after losing a House of Lords appeal
against a conviction for racially aggravated public disorder. The legal
definition of “racial group” includes nationality and citizenship.
Baby death trial
The grandmother of a six-month-old baby whose body was found in a drain has
told of the last time she saw him. Theresa Simpson, 48, of Smethwick, told
Birmingham Crown Court that she checked on Troy Simpson in his crib on
February 6 last year. Sherwain McCoy Smith, 21, is charged with murder.
Shelve the bread
Shoppers have been urged to boycott bread high in salt after research found
discrepancies in loaves. Some 50 out of 138 loaves exceeded the content
target of 1.1g per 100g set by the Food Standards Agency. The worst
offenders were Asda’s medium white big loaf and Morrison’s the best
farmhouse malted bread.
Biggest fright
Spiders — particularly those in the bath — are the most feared creatures in
Britain, closely followed by snakes, according to a survey for National
Geographic. Other animals named in the top ten by 3,000 people were
rats, dogs and wasps, but also, despite the lack of native populations,
crocodiles and lions.
£25,000 payout
Two Irish travellers who were dismissed from a labouring job at the Belfast
Odyssey Arena after one day were awarded £25,000 compensation for racial
discrimination. An industrial tribunal said that Martin McDonagh, 21, and
Patrick Stokes, 22, were treated in a “highhanded, malicious and insulting”
way.
ASBO for lager tout
A man who sold lager from his ice-cream van has been given a ten-year ASBO by
Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates’ Court. Steven Harrison, 51, admitted two
offences under the Licensing Act 2003. One involved selling lager to a
trading standards officer, while the other related to selling alcohol
outside a school.
Terror suspect loses extradition fight
A terrorist suspect wanted for alleged involvement in the Madrid train
bombings in 2004 has lost the final round of his legal battle against extradition to Spain.
Five law lords rejected argument by lawyers for Moutaz Almallah Dabas, a
Spanish citizen living in Slough, that the European arrest warrant under
which he was detained in Britain two years ago was invalid because its
wording did not comply with the 2003 Extradition Act.
Energy bill action
Gas and electricity customers with prepay meters are charged £189 a year more
for their energy than those who pay via direct debit, even though they are
poorer, according to a cross-party group of six MPs. They have signed an
early day motion calling for an end to higher charges for prepay meters.
Wave killed skipper
A skipper who was delivering a yacht from Southampton to Plymouth drowned
after a wave swept him overboard in rough seas, an inquest at Dorchester was
told. An inquiry into the accident, in March last year, concluded that David
Clear, 42, should have been wearing a lifeline. Verdict: accidental death.
Jail for killing cat
A man who admitted kicking his cat to death because it was muddy has been
jailed for 13 weeks and banned for life from keeping pets by magistrates in
Truro. Andrei Cox, 34, a property developer, had told RSPCA officers that
Bella, a year-old Persian cat had been in a accident but later admitted
weeks of abuse.
Protest backfires
A woman who campaigned to save her local pub from being demolished as part of
a regeneration scheme has learnt that her house could be knocked down
instead. Claire Wilkie, 37, lives near the Porter’s Prince of Wales in
Macclesfield, Cheshire. The future of her house and four others will be
decided in May.
Young driver plea
Young drivers should undergo a minimum period of learning and a limit on
passengers they may carry, insurers have said. Giving evidence to the
Transport Select Committee, the Association of British Insurers called for a
compulsory one-year of driving lessons before motorists can drive
unsupervised.
Not seen coming
The Office of Fair Trading has said that an increasing number of vulnerable
people are falling victim to scams by self-styled clairvoyants. Last year an
estimated 170,000 people paid an average of £240 each after receiving
unsolicited mail offering lucky charms, lottery wins or solace after
bereavement.
Smart-card plan for teenagers dropped
Proposals to issue high-tech smart cards to teenagers, giving free access to
leisure centres and other activities, have been abandoned because they are
too expensive (Rosemary Bennett writes).
An investigation showed that the youth opportunity cards would cost £30
million to develop, leaving £14 million in the budget for teenagers to
spend. Two consultancy firms were employed, at a cost of £2 million. “Our
conclusions are that the costs would far outweigh the money being provided
to young people,” Beverley Hughes, Minister for Children, said.
David Davis, Shadow Home Secretary, said that the project had “cost the
taxpayers millions of pounds without providing a single benefit”.
Patient care suffers
More than two thirds of NHS executives who responded to a survey believe that
patient care will suffer as a result of the pressure to cut costs (Nigel
Hawkes writes).
And almost three quarters admit that access to treatments is being restricted
in the attempt to save Patricia Hewitt’s job. The Health Secretary promised
that the NHS would end the year in balance.
The survey, by Health Service Journal, showed that 47 per cent of primary care
trusts have made or plan to make staff redundant, 73 per cent are
restricting access to treatments and 50 per cent are delaying operations.
New asthma drug
Patient trials of a new drug for treating asthma could begin this year.
Scientists at Children’s Hospital, Boston, have discovered that DPPE-PEG can
block the activity of a kind of immune cell that is linked to asthma.
As the drug is licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration for use by
human beings, clinical trials could be started swiftly, Omid Akbari, who led
the research team, said.
More work, however, is still needed to understand the underlying mechanism of
the natural killer T-cells (NKT cells) on which it acts, New Scientist
magazine reports.
HIV medical boost
A drug awaiting approval for use is twice as effective as available medicines
at stopping HIV patients from developing full-blown Aids, a conference was
told.
The pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced that tests of maraviroc show that
it increases the number of patients protected against Aids.
It acts by blocking the molecular entrances, the CCR5 co-receptor, that HIV
employs to get into a type of white blood cell vital to the immune system.
It was developed after researchers realised that HIV binds to CCR5 and people
who are resistant to HIV are missing the CCR5 gene.
Cholesterol bonus
Growth spurts as a toddler or teenager lead to lower levels of damaging
cholesterol later in life, a study by the Medical Research Council suggests.
Toddlers who grew rapidly before they were 2, and those who did so after the
age of 15, had lower cholesterol when they were 53 than those who had no
similar growth spurts.
The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health,
indicated that people who put on a lot of weight aged 15 to 53 had higher
cholesterol levels, including low density lipoprotein (LDL) or “bad”
cholesterol. The study involved more than 2,000 people born in Britain in
1946.
