Two psychics have been given government funding to teach people how to "communicate with the dead". Paul and Deborah Rees have been awarded £4,500 under the Government's Want2Work job creation scheme, reports the Daily Telegraph. The couple, from Bridgend, south Wales, will use it to instruct people on how to contact friends and relatives "on the other side". Critics are astonished at the award by the Department of Work and Pensions bureaucrats, and the Welsh Assembly has launched an investigation. The mediums insist the "mere £4,500" of public money will be put to good use at their centre, the Accolade Academy of Psychic and Mediumistic Studies. Mr Rees, 40, a former upholsterer, said: "People who have lost mums and dads or a child deserve all the respect in the world in their grieving, and they 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 award." Mr Rees said he had his 37-year-old wife had to negotiate "a lot of red tape" to secure the grant, which is intended to help start-up businesses. "They hadn't invested in psychics before so we really had to prove ourselves," he said. But Tory Welsh Assembly member Jonathan Morgan said: "It is 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."
