Two psychics have been given thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ cash to help grieving relatives contact the dead. Paul and Deborah Rees were handed £4,500 through a businesses start-up scheme.
The couple, who have two children, claimed the “fantastic” boost would help them develop the Accolade Academy of Psychic and Mediumistic Studies from their home in North Cornelly, near Porthcawl.
Paul said: “Without the injection we wouldn’t be able to do this.”
But Taxpayers’ Alliance campaign director Mark Wallace said: “People work hard to afford to pay taxes and the last thing our money should be spent on is this kind of hocus pocus.
“At a time when people who are alive are losing their jobs, it’s absurd that money is being spent trying to contact the other side.”
And Conservative AM Jonathan Morgan said: “It’s 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.
“The people administering the scheme should be disciplined for allowing this project to receive public funding and the money should be recouped.”
Paul, 40, last night defended the Welsh Assembly Government and Department for Work and Pensions’ Want2Work grant.
He said: “What I would say to people who feel their tax money has been wasted is, if they lose a child, if they lose a mother or father, then they will go to a medium to get peace that their child has passed safely and is in a better place.
“People who have lost mums and dads or a child deserve all the respect in the world in their grieving and deserve a medium who can give them respect.
“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.”
Asked how other would-be entrepreneurs denied cash would feel, he said: “Everybody is going to feel that about industry. If someone is a plumber and an electrician has a grant, the plumber’s going to say ‘I should have had that’.”
But Paul admitted he and Deborah were stunned their application – the first from self-styled mediums – was approved.
Paul said: “We were surprised we were able to get money, purely because we were the first.”
He and Deborah, who met at Arthur Findlay College, “The World’s Foremost College for the Advancement of Spiritualism and Psychic Sciences” in Stansted, Essex, have worked as mediums for five years.
But Deborah quit 18 months ago after being diagnosed with a spinal disease.
She began claiming disability benefits and Paul became her carer.
However, treatment eased her condition and she felt well enough to return to work, so the pair visited Business in Focus in Tondu, near Bridgend.
“There was an opportunity for grants from the Government to help new businesses start,” said Paul, who was an upholsterer for 17 years.
“We put a business plan together because we knew the Want2Work scheme would help us back into the work environment.”
The pair eventually convinced sceptical officials they could succeed.
Paul said: “They could see they were giving a grant to two individuals who are very serious about what they are doing.
“They hadn’t invested in psychic mediums before so we had to really prove ourselves and that we had the ability to be international mediums.
“We had to get through a lot of red tape.
“They were very fussy and careful about how things were put together.”
Paul and Deborah, who will teach workshops in New York and Canada later this year, spent cash on overheads including a printer, advertising posters and building a website.
They sent receipts to Want2Work and were reimbursed for £4,500.
Paul declined to say how much profit they make, but said: “It keeps our heads above water.”
He said he and Deborah were “absolutely passionate” about their profession, adding: “This isn’t a 9am to 5pm job – it’s a way of life.
“Horrible hours, very little money – but it’s something we love.”
Paul and Deborah host courses, workshops and seminars across the UK, teaching 12 students how to use their “awareness and psychic ability”.
“It’s like a mobile college,” said Paul.
“Me and Deb are very professional in the way we work.
“We take it very seriously and are very good at we do.”
He compared developing people’s psychic prowess with improving football skills.
Paul said: “Everybody has the ability – it’s something you’re born with.
“As you grow up you kick a ball and find that easy, but how well you kick a ball in your lifetime is open to yourself. Not everybody is David Beckham.”
Describing their role as “about linking with those who have died”, Paul added: “It isn’t something that’s hard to work with – it’s everyday thoughts and emotions.
“The ability to link with spirit is very much there for everybody.
“We simplify the sixth sense and make it very easy to understand.
“Our success rate for people leaving our workshops is probably 100%.”
Paul said sceptics would be proved wrong, claiming: “It isn’t all your airy-fairy, love-and-light.
“It’s a very natural process.”
And he shrugged off criticism of the grant saying: “We are there to bring comfort.”
SOURCE : Wales Online