Son brands flagship policy a 'shambles from the beginning' FAMILY LOSE BATTLE FOR COUNCIL TO FORK OUT FOR COSTS.

THE man who made the complaint that led to yesterday's decision last night called the whole affair "a shambles".

Bill McLachlan told the Public Services Ombudsman that Argyll and Bute Council had failed to fund care for his dad, William.

Bill, 62, of Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire, said last night: "When Argyll and Bute first refused to pay, they did not say my father wasn't entitled, they said, 'We don't have the money'.

"The whole thing has been a shambles from the beginning.

"Within the UK context, old people having problems looking after themselves get an attendance allowance for home help. With the Free Healthcare act in Scotland, the UK government withdrew that allowance.

"That meant Scotland had to fund the whole thing. If they had originally phrased it as a top-up to the attendance allowance rather than a replacement, we would not have lost that money."

Bill said: "It appears the judge has decided the Act does not actually say what the parliament and the Executive led us to believe it says - it doesn't say what they intended it to say.

"This obviously has much wider repercussions.

"It puts the ball firmly back in the court of the Executive and the parliament to modify the Act to make it do what it's meant to do.

"From the beginning, I've felt the problem was not due to MSPs and ministers but was an administrative problem due to the civil servants.

"The wording of an Act of Parliament is not down to MSPs.

"They rely on professional lawyers to draft it properly."

He said he was disappointed that the case was not concluded before his dad died aged 91in April.

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FURY: Bill