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Psychics Get Govt Money to 'help Grieving Relatives Contact the Dead'

by Gopalan on Mar 27 2009 1:45 PM

Want2Work is supposed to be a job creation scheme in the UK. But it seems to be providing opportunities to self-proclaimed psychics too.

Two such were given £4,500 in government cash to help grieving relatives contact the dead.

Mediums Paul and Deborah Rees were awarded taxpayers' money to teach people how to contact the 'other side' under the Want2Work scheme.

The £21m project, aimed at getting 200,000 people back into work, is funded by Welsh Assembly and European Social Fun cash.

The clairvoyant couple won the public funding to help set up their Accolade Academy of Psychic and Mediumistic Studies school under the Department of Work and Pensions employment scheme.

Mr Rees, who was an upholsterer for 17 years before losing his job, said: 'We were surprised we were able to get money purely because we were the first psychics.'

The couple run the academy from their home and say the cash will be spent on printing, advertising and website costs.

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They charge £65 per workshop which is 'designed to bring greater understanding of your awareness by using a process to develop your mediumship.'

Critics slammed the move as a 'disgrace,' pointing out it was unacceptable that public money should be squandered that way when thousands were losing their jobs and had little to fall back on.

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The Welsh Assembly Government has announced it would be launching an investigation into the grant following the uproar.

Taxpayers' Alliance campaign director Mark Wallace said public money could be better spent during the credit crunch.

'People work hard to afford to pay taxes and the last thing our money should be spent on is this kind of hocus pocus,' he said

But self-styled mediums Paul, 40, and Deborah, 37, defended the public funding for their psychic school at Bridgend, South Wales.

Mr Rees said: 'People who feel their tax money has been wasted should remember that if they'd lost a child they would go to a medium to get peace that their loved one has passed safely and is in a better place.

'Our job is to provide substantial evidence to bring ease to people's grieving - and that's what I would say to people who query the mere £4,500.'

The couple told how they battled through 'a lot of red tape' to get the grant which is designed to help people start up businesses.

Mr Rees said: 'We put a business plan together and they could see they were giving a grant to two individuals who are very serious about what they're doing.

'They hadn't invested in psychics before so we really had to prove ourselves.'

Conservative Welsh Assembly member Jonathan Morgan questioned the grant and branded the move as unacceptable.

'It is an utter disgrace that taxpayers money is being wasted and given to an organisation that believes it can teach people how to communicate with the dead,' he said.

'The people administering the scheme should be disciplined for allowing this project to get public funding - and the money should be recouped.'

But the DWP decide on which applicants can get the cash, Daily Mail reported.

A DWP spokesman said: 'We give real help to anyone who loses their job to get back into work as quickly as possible.'

A Welsh Assembly spokesman said: 'We support the overall Want2Work scheme in its efforts to get people back into gainful employment - but we don't administer it.

'We are in the process of checking to determine how this unique venture fits in with the aims of the project.'

Source-Medindia
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