Patients at the state hospital Carstairs are receiving cost of living payments - despite not having any bills to pay. Dozens of patients at the maximum security hospital have been given the £650 handout by the government which was granted to ease the burden of escalating energy and food prices.
Those on Universal Credit at Carstairs - which houses some of Scotland's most dangerous patients - have been automatically entitled to the uplift. Sources at the hospital said this could include those who have been accused of murder and other serious crimes.
One source said: ""Patients who have been found not guilty due to mental health and illness can still claim benefits unlike prisoners in mainstream prisons or patients who have come to the hospital for treatment from prison. Many of the patients gets benefits and because they don't have any bills to pay and don't go out most of them have sizeable bank accounts already.
"It's absolutely the right thing to do to help people in genuine need with extra money but this seems a massive waste when the patients don't have bills to pay or worry where their next meal is coming from. This is something that should have been taken into consideration when they were deciding who was eligible for the one off payments."
Politicians have criticised the move with Labour saying the news would "raise eyebrows" over unnecessary expenditure. Earlier this year we revealed dozens of patients at the state hospital were splurging thousands on of pounds on high end electronics and designer gear in a bid to beat benefit cuts.
The patients, some who were said to have five-figures in their bank accounts, were being encouraged by advisers to spend their money or risk losing their benefits for having too much in their savings. Sources said some patients went on spending sprees buying designer clothes, expensive electronics such as iPads and music players, footwear and jewellery.
Labour's spokesperson for Justice, Pauline McNeill MSP said: “It is only right that every effort is made to help people financially during this crisis, but likewise every effort must be made to prevent unneeded expenditure. It will raise eyebrows that patients at Carstairs are in receipt of £300 cheques from the government when they have no real expenditures at all. It’s time for the SNP government to get on top of this issue and make sure these funds are targeted to those most in need.”
One of four high-security hospitals in the UK, Carstairs has 140 high-secure beds, and another four for emergency use, for male patients requiring maximum security care. Around a quarter of the male patients there are killers who were deemed not mentally fit to stand trial or be in the general prison population.
Patients housed there at the moment include psychopath James Dunleavy who killed his mum at home in Edinburgh and cut her up before burying her in a shallow grave. He is said to be “untreatable”. And schizophrenic David Johnstone who killed an 83-year-old dog walker after brutally assaulting a couple out exercising their pet. He was ordered to be detained without limit of time.
A spokeswoman for Carstairs said: “Patients receive the benefits they are entitled to under the benefits system.”
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