'Cash cow' boy loses transport

Photo (posed by model) / Getty Images

The disabled boy social workers said was being used as a "cash cow" by his alcoholic mother and her boyfriend - as reported in yesterday's Herald - has lost access to a vehicle specially modified to meet his needs after it was taken from him by a trust set up to care for his interests, his father says.

Documents obtained by the Herald show the trust is controlled by the child's former caregiver - a man locked in an acrimonious dispute with the boy's father. It has left the father, who is caring for the boy, without ready transport.

The Herald has found the brain-damaged and autistic boy was paid ACC money, about $1000 a week, into a family trust. The trust document, dated May 2014, shows the boy's mother and caregiver are trustees, with a professional trustee service. The mother's death this year left the caregiver as the trustee.

When the boy was passed to his father in July, CYF social workers insisted on the key to the vehicle.

In a complaint by the family trust to the Ministry of Social Development, it said CYF had no right to take the vehicle. The trust demanded the vehicle's return and said its intended use as transport for the boy did not override the trust's ownership.

A repossession agent hired by the trust took the vehicle last Thursday. It was parked near a mediation hearing between the former caregiver and the boy's father.

The caregiver said the vehicle was bought to reflect the remote countryside the family had once lived in, and the boy no longer lived there so didn't need the vehicle.