UKP10M FOR GRANS TO CARE FOR CHILDREN

+Drugs Crisis+

GRANDPARENTS who care for their addict children's kids are to get a
UKP10million handout.

The government will announce the bumper package this
week.

Around 2000 children born to drug users are looked after by "kinship
carers" funded by the social work department.

They get just UKP60 child benefit and child tax credit per week. It is
not known if carers who take on kids without social work involvement
will get cash.

Last night Labour MSP Duncan McNeil said: "It is the wider family who
pick up the pieces and it is important to recognise that many children
need to be looked after.

"Support for kinship carers is a start to addressing this very
significant problem."

Experts claim up to 60,000 children live with at least one parent who
is a drug user.

Last week the Sunday Mail revealed shocking pictures of an addict
passed out in a doorway while his toddler daughter curled up beside
him. His baby was bawling in a pram next to them.