Sunak ‘concerned’ as triple killer Calocane remains eligible for benefits
Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride is looking into Valdo Calocane’s case and the rules around welfare eligibility.
Convicted criminals’ entitlement to benefits will be reviewed after it emerged triple killer Valdo Calocane is receiving welfare payments.
Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride is looking into the situation after reports that Calocane was eligible to continue receiving universal credit because he was sentenced to a hospital order rather than jailed.
Calocane was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order last week for stabbing to death university students Barnaby Webber, 19, and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, 19, and school caretaker Ian Coates, 65, in Nottingham last year.
The Telegraph reported he is eligible for universal credit payments of up £360 a month after being sent to the high-security Ashworth Hospital in Merseyside.
Downing Street said Rishi Sunak was “very concerned” about the reports.
“And the Work and Pensions Secretary is looking into the details of this case specifically and the rules around benefits entitlements more broadly and it’s right that we let these reviews run their course and establish the facts.”