Flexible New Deal Scandal:
Flexible New Deal

The Department for Work and Pensions has been investigating Action 4 Employment and at least 2 other undisclosed training providers for fraud over the last 13 months – this comes after Maatwerk had their contract terminated for fraud.

This means that even though they weren’t restricted or blacklisted from bidding for Flexible New Deal contracts: they will now lose the Flexible New Deal contracts after at least 20 cases of fraud have been discovered in May 2008 at A4e in Hull where two staff members falsified forms meant for the employer and also forged signatures on the forms in order to receive job outcome bonuses from DWP.

Action 4 Employment was also involved in a temporary job recruitment agency scam – thus forcing New Deal participants into temporary work which resulted in more job outcome bonuses from DWP.

Another New Deal provider has been forced to repay £48,000 for fraud – the name of the provider hasn’t been disclosed.

The DWP was happy to pay Pertemps PDG over 2 million when a report clearly stated fraud – in this instance no concerns other than as a report were raised.

Also, so far all fraud cases were consisting of forged signatures on forms and such like – the DWP have not yet picked up on timesheet abuses (paid to be there for x hours, as shown on timesheets, but participants are there for significantly less i.e. 10 hours instead of 30), dismissal abuses (dismissing participants for false or trivial reasons to receive full 13 weeks amount without them being there for even half that time), guaranteed jobs bonuses abuse (some participants have received a job offer before having to do the course starting 2-6 weeks after the course starts, providers still get job outcome payments intended as a bonus if they get the participant work, even if they had nothing to do with it) and future job outcome bonuses abuse (getting participants to enter an agreement where the provider has “permission” to contact any future employer after the course has ended to get job outcome bonus even though you got the job after the course unaided by them) to name a few.

At only 19:55 BST the record number of unique visitors on this blog today has beaten the previous record a week ago (22nd June 2009) by 2 times and has tripled the daily average number of unique visitors. It seems everyone is very interested in the A4E fraud so we will bring more revelations on Action 4 Employment in the future.

All New Deal training providers, past and present should be subject to an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.  The fraud investigation can’t be conducted by the Department for Work and Pensions as they also fall under the suspicion of fraudulent activity and other acts of unlawful misconduct and requires an outside independent investigation. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

The illegal act of:

1. Bidding for a contract to a high specification in order to win the contract (this becomes part of the New Deal contract outlined in Part 3 (“The services”), Section 3 (“Provider obligations”) subsections 3.1.1 and 3.1.5, Schedule 2 (and applicable Annexes) and other applicable sections), Or
2. Failing to follow Provider Guidance (breach of subsection 3.1.3 of New Deal contract)

   and

3. Deliberately providing the service different to that promised at tender stage, where the standard is less, where financial cut backs are made to the delivery, understaffed, under resourced and overcrowded premises.

… is known as “misrepresentation“. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

Only a day later than when we reported

New Deal Scandal record hits DOUBLE on news of A4e Fraud

hits to this blog New Deal Scandal increased just under 10 times the previous average and 2.5 times more unique visitors than the previous day!

Ipswich Unemployed Action Blog has received 3.5 times more web traffic since reporting the New Deal fraud. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

Action for Employment founder and chairperson Emma Harrison discussion regarding scams: with video! View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

Former Action 4 Employment (A4e) employee Elizabeth Orsman has been jailed for fraud with a total value of £15,833. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

The New Deal Scandal blog unique hits yesterday were still rising (at 22%) as concerns increase over Action 4 Employment and Working Links, the entire New Deal scheme which is very vulnerable to fraud and the Flexible New Deal. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

I would like to welcome Action 4 Employment who have recently visited this blog; it would look better if you commented on some of the A4e fraud issues mentioned on the site. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

We can reveal that on the 20th April 2009, Mr Neil Watson the Finance Director for Action 4 Employment resigned from a4e Ltd as a director. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

We can reveal that on the 20th April 2009, Mr Neil Watson the Finance Director for Action 4 Employment resigned from a4e Ltd as a director. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

We can reveal that on the 20th April 2009, Mr Neil Watson the Finance Director for Action 4 Employment resigned from a4e Ltd as a director. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

New Deal Scandal network can announce that Action 4 Employment has two main companies which they swapped names of. We do not suggest that this act was an act of fraudulent company trading however we felt the suspicions of which is significant to match the allegations of widespread fraud in the organisation. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

Many New Deal providers are using a whole range of fraudulent techniques to receive money unlawfully from the Government. The Government generally isn’t interested in knowing about these techniques, they only recognise the fraud that is forging employer signatures. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

Action for Employment, the main New Deal prime contractor caught up in fraud allegations has recently requested a host to take down the Watching a4e website.

We are proud to announce, that the owners of Watching a4e has kept us up to date with the new web address.

Watching a4e!

View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

It has been a rumour been going around for several months now, it deserves a post!

A4e founder Emma Harrison is said to have an ambition to start a bank!

That’s right, she wants to start a bank aimed at poor and disadvantaged communities (or Jobseekers)! View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

What is the REAL story behind a4e?

every woman article states:

Emma set up her company A4e in 1991 initially to provide skills and employment training for workers made unemployed by the decline in Sheffield’s steel industry. She has since built A4e into a competitive public services company that delivers a range of services to, amongst others, the financially excluded and long-term unemployed. Today A4E turns over in excess of £100 million.

and

women speakers says:

ACTION FOR EMPLOYMENT

Action for Employment (A4e) was founded by top female entrepreneur, Emma Harrison, in 1991. It is a privately owned organisation offering employment, welfare, education, training and business support services to the public and private sectors.

Or

In the 1980s a small engineering training company was set up in Sheffield to take advantage of the Conservative government’s willingness to pour money into such companies for uncertain returns. The owner, Harrison, took his daughter, Emma, into the company, then quickly skipped to Germany. This part of A4e’s history has acquired the aura of legend. Emma Harrison was a young graduate, suddenly landed with a company to run, and an absent father who was busy draining it of money. In 1991 Emma renamed the outfit Action for Employment (quickly abbreviated) and set about making money. She remains almost the sole owner.

The breakthrough came with the Labour government’s New Deal programme. A4e rapidly became the “preferred bidder” for contracts to provide back-to-work training. Their success baffled their competitors, who knew they were putting in equally good bids. This led to rumours that it was Emma’s connections who were responsible. Someone high up in government, perhaps? A Sheffield MP name of Blunkett, maybe? But there was no evidence for this, and rival training companies went out of business as A4e prospered.

Thanks watching a4e! View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

In the last financial year, 2008-09, Action for Employment (a4e), the largest welfare to work provider who has 47 active welfare to work provisions only resulted in 20% of their clients securing employment. This is quite short of the 45% target.

New Deal wasn’t designed for those with higher skills: why not? View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

Just a brief overall of recent content on ”New Deal Scandal & Welfare Reform” and “Ipswich Unemployed Action” blogs.  This might be easier to some then using Wordpress pages as some sticky posts make normal ones difficult to see sometimes.  View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

New Deal Scandal is back!

Against the will of Action for Employment (a4e) we are not going away.

A4e may have successfully taken down watchingA4e as Webs (previously freewebs) bowed to the pressure but Wordpress had the sense and courtesy to consult with me first before taking removal action. I proved to Wordpress that this is nothing more than internet censorship as my source for that blog post was from the Government and is available to anyone who wishes to search the company register.

This makes it 1-1 on the score between A4e and Blogger!

This meant a little bit of downtime – well no new posts anyway and one being hidden (private) – but now we are back, and now have some more content on A4e that I am sure you will find interesting. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

This is criticism against A4e and how they manage their business. This is relevant because they are the largest New Deal provider receiving money from, (guess who?) you, the taxpayer!

I couldn’t resist but to disclose how strange A4e operates being such a large company and all. I don’t know of anything like it. Please feel to continue reading (no its got nothing to do with the fraud investigation) View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

Please see the exact 288b form used to terminate the directorship below. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

You might be aware of A4e founder Emma Harrison’s involvement with the NSPCC. You might also be aware of the hub page regarding A4e supporting the British Heart Foundation by dumping its VSO clients there. We can report that A4e actually has done a U-turn on supporting charitable organisations such as the NSPCC, to which Emma Harrison is (or was) the Chairperson of the NSPCC’s Regional Full Stop Appeal and CEO Mark Lovell sits (or did sit) on the National Corporate Sponsorship Board of the NSPCC. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

Just a brief overall of recent content on ”New Deal Scandal & Welfare Reform” blog. This might be easier to some then using WordPress pages as some sticky posts make normal ones difficult to see sometimes. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

A4e should give up trying to censor blogs like this one. For one, this is hosted in America for an American company and thus under American law they are NOT liable for the content contained within – so please stop harrassing them. They are only the middleman/service provider, not the publisher, I am. Metropolitan International School recently lost a court case against search engine giant Google (who happens to contain a lot of content from this blog, I wouldn’t advise going after them…) and found this out. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

New Deal Scandal can reveal that A4e had tried to avoid paying tax. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

New Deal Scandal can reveal that Neil Watson resigned as a director in addition to dropping down to a less senior position while Mark Stanley took the position of Finance Director.  This is a very rare occurence in business. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

If you have been on New Deal the chances are you had £4 unlawfully deducted weekly from travel reimbursements and expected to cover that from your training allowance.

New Deal Scandal and Ipswich Unemployed Action has confirmed this is in fact unlawful and New Deal participants may take action to recover the £52 deduction for the 13 weeks they attended. If participants have attended New Deal in the past they can still claim £52 for each 13 weeks they completed on New Deal. This could be £156 for some people.

Under 13 weeks? You can claim £4 per week for each deduction that occured.

You can also claim interest on outstanding amounts.

Articles and Discussion on A4e/Studio Lambert Benefit Busters Series 1: Episodes 1 & 2. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

An entire record of email communication between a New Deal participant and Emma Harrison A4e chair. Slightly modified for easier reading and correcting spelling mistakes etc. View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

A4e, Avanta (TNG) and Jobcentre Plus all amongst New Years Honours List