Residents are being forced to wait almost three months for vital self-isolation grants, according to Dumbarton’s MSP.
Jackie Baillie has hit out at West Dunbartonshire Council for the hold up and has called on chief executive Joyce White to “get a grip” of the situation.
She says that she has been contacted by a council whistleblower who claims there is a backlog due to severe understaffing.
A spokeswoman for the local authority told the Lennox Herald the delay had been caused by a massive 731 percent increase in self-isolation support grant applications, reflecting the spike in Covid-19 cases in West Dunbartonshire.
This surge has also coincided with employee absences within the team, as well as vacancies and training of staff in response to updated Scottish Government guidance.
The Labour MSP says that she has been contacted by a number of constituents who have waited for up to 11 weeks for the payment.
She recently raised the issue with the First Minister, who she said could not offer an explanation.
Ms Baillie commented: “It is completely unacceptable that local people are having to wait for months to receive self-isolation grants.
“This is vital funding that many will not be able to live without.
“The delays in payments will force many people to return to work for financial reasons before it is safe for them to do so.
“It is incredibly concerning to learn that the council has not employed enough staff to deal with the workload created by grant applications.
“This is having a negative impact on the stress levels of staff as well as the ability for payments to be processed quickly. The chief executive needs to get a grip of this and sort this out immediately so that local people do not lose out.”
A council spokeswoman apologised for the delays and said staff are doing everything they can to process the applications.
She said: “We’re sorry for the delays currently being experienced in processing self-isolation support grants and would reassure all applicants that this remains a priority with £72,500 in grants paid out to date.
“The delay has been caused by a 731 percent increase in applications, reflecting the recent increase in Covid-19 cases in West Dunbartonshire.
“We appreciate residents’ patience and are doing everything we can to process all outstanding applications, including training people from other council service areas to enable them to urgently assist.”
The First Minister said she was “not aware” of the issues when asked at Holyrood last week. She added: “I will look into that and if there is any issue there I will undertake to make sure that is resolved.”
Nicola Sturgeon asked if Ms Baillie would send her the details of specific cases, she would look into them.
