| The young gran, who the Tele is not identifying to protect the grandchild, told how despite having looked after the four-year-old girl for more than a year she has yet to receive any benefits.
Instead she has been left to care for the child on around £60-a-week employment and support allowance, after being signed off sick from her job in a local bakery due to the stress of the situation.
She said, “It’s making me ill, it really is. I don’t sleep and I don’t eat. It’s just so difficult and frustrating. It has been absolutely terrible.”
The problems for the Fintry gran, who we have called Laura, started in January 2009 when her daughter got mixed up with drugs.
“My daughter and her partner had been together for a few years and everything was fine,” she said. “But then she started going out all the time.
“She was staying out overnight and was maybe away for two or three days at a time. Eventually we found out she was taking heroin.”
The little girl’s mother became increasingly withdrawn from her daughter’s life and soon began a relationship with a local drug user, Laura added.
The gran was then left as the sole carer of the child when the father went on the run from the police after being accused of assault.
“He’s been out of her life since the end of August last year,” said Laura. “He went on the run from police and was sent to prison when they caught him.
“Because I took on her care voluntarily and she doesn’t have a social worker I have found it extremely difficult to get financial help.
“I don’t get any child benefit, I don’t get any child tax credit, I don’t get any kinship, I don’t get milk tokens. I have not received anything. And that’s all because they’re still paying her mum, who takes nothing to do with her.”
Laura is still waiting on financial support despite seeking legal advice, obtaining the support of Dundee East MP Stewart Hosie and being granted a residence order for the child last month at Dundee Sheriff Court.
Experts believe an increasing number of grandparents are facing a similar dilemma as Scotland’s drug epidemic spirals.
“It shouldn’t be as difficult as it has been,” said Laura. “If the government would just pay attention to what is going on it wouldn’t be this tough.
“It’s like they don’t believe what I’m saying — I mean, what mother would make up a story like that?
“If they don’t believe solicitors and MPs who are they going to believe?
“We’ve explained to them that she’s been taking drugs, but they’re still taking her word that she’s got care of the child.
“The nursery knows that I’ve got her, the doctors know, the health visitor knows, the social services — everybody knows. But I am still not getting anywhere.”
The devastated gran said dealing with the financial uncertainty and the complex bureaucracy had heightened the heartbreak of watching her daughter’s descent into drug addiction.
“It is really devastating,” she said. “[My daughter] used to hate heroin. If she saw junkies in the street she’d say they made her sick. I was totally shocked when I found out she had started taking it.
“But it’s everywhere around here now. You only have to walk down the road and you see them. It’s really scary and all the problems of getting support have made it worse.
“I’m just hoping that everything will eventually get sorted out and I’ll be able to get on with my life.” |
