One ‘chaotic’ family costs taxpayers £1 million
AN ALCOHOLIC couple and their two young children have together cost the taxpayer more than £1million because of the demand put on public services by their ‘chaotic’ lifestyle.
The staggering bill is the largest ever revealed for a single family and includes the cost of hundreds of call-outs by the emergency services to deal with incidents related to the parents’ drunken behaviour.
The unnamed family of four, from Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, generated a monumental workload for 25 separate agencies, including police, NHS, fire services and social services.
The cost was uncovered in an inquiry by an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) into the impact that alcohol abuse is having on the emergency services.
Its report said alcohol abuse costs the NHS £3.5billion a year and the fire service £131million annually. The inquiry heard that police were regularly called to the family home because of complaints about their domestic disputes. The fire service and paramedics were also frequently called out when the parents accidentally started fires or fell over after drinking.
Their two young sons, aged between eight and ten, seldom attended school and received the attention of local education officers and social services.
An analysis by the police, NHS and fire service of exactly how much of a drain on public resources the family has been revealed they had cost in excess of £1million in just three years.
Peter Dartford, former chief fire officer in Staffordshire, told the inquiry: ‘They were living this chaotic lifestyle. The mum was alcoholic and the father was drinking heavily. The concern is, having spent all that money, the issues including alcohol dependency are still there.’
Sir Bill Cash, Conservative MP for Stone in Staffordshire, said: ‘It’s outrageous that this money should be used in this way. It’s perfectly clear that somebody is fleecing the system.’
The MPs are now set to publish the report on their findings. It will also reveal how frontline emergency staff suffer physical and sexual abuse from drunken individuals – often on a daily basis.
MP Fiona Bruce, who chaired the inquiry, said: ‘This shocking report reveals the highly damaging impact which excessive drinking in our society today has on the lives of the selfless men and women who serve the public at the front line of our emergency services.
‘And it’s not just the service personnel who suffer, we all do – from the taxpayers who foot the unnecessary billion-pound annual bills to patients who can’t be seen promptly at A&E.’