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GRIMLY FIENDISH
post Feb 19 2012, 09:56 PM
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http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2012/02/10...-benefit-cheat/

Emma Harrison: The UK’s Biggest Benefit Cheat


£9 million pounds is the annual cost of this parasite to our community. British people, that is your money!

Emma Harrison, chair of poverty pimps A4e received a banker busting £9 million dividend this year on the back of her company’s shoddy back to work schemes.

A4e provide workfare and job search schemes for the Government which are notorious for being badly resourced and delivering poor results. It’s hardly surprisingly when rogue trader Harrison is trousering most of the cash. Inmates at A4e schemes have complained of lack of even basic IT facilities to enable them to look for work online, poor quality or non-existent training and people forced to sit around in A4e’s offices for 30 hours a week on mandatory workfare schemes because A4e can’t find them anything to do. It now appears that every penny saved siphoning off cash intended to help people into work is going straight into the upkeep of Emma’s Derbyshire mansion.

On the recent Pathways to Work scheme A4e only succeeded in placing a derisory 9% of people into work – a percentage that well may have got jobs anyway, and perhaps sooner, had they not been subject to A4e’s interference.

This hasn’t stopped A4e being given five of the major contracts to carry out the much vaunted work programme schemes, sending unemployed people to work in supermarkets for no pay. It’s not just Harrison enjoying a benefits bonanza, the likes of Tesco and ASDA are now discovering they can get workers for free, at the tax payers expense.

The tories claim that the new payments by results model will ensure that companies like A4e will only get big pay outs if they succeed in finding people long term work. This is bogus. It is in A4e’s interest to deliver the cheapest possible service at the highest possible price. That’s how business works. Why bother sending someone on a literacy course when you can give a highly skilled and newly unemployed person a bit of shonky advice on their CV then claim a big cash pay out if they find work. As they do now A4e will claim credit for someone’s success in finding work despite her company whilst ignoring those who are hardest to help. It’s good business.

(Anyone on A4e’s schemes who finds work should remember this. You don’t need to tell the Jobcentre or A4e the name of your employer when you sign off. You can just f*** off, leaving A4e scrambling around trying to find out where you’re working so they can claim a fat pay-cheque. Chances are they won’t track you down.)

Should A4e fail to find enough people long term jobs then contracts can always be renegotiated, especially as these were agreed before unemployment started to rocket. Iain Duncan Smith has been so vocal about his obsession with forcing unemployed and sick people into unpaid work that Harrison and the other providers have him over a barrel. And should the whole thing come crashing down, as it very likely will, well then there’ll be another scheme and no doubt A4e will be awarded to run that as well. Past failure is no barrier to future success when it comes to winning workfare contracts.

Emma’s dividend dwarfs the million pound bonus finally turned down by RBS loan shark Stephen Hester. Almost every penny of her company’s profit has come from providing Government contracts to harass sick and unemployed people. Contracts they have regularly dismally underperformed at. This is money that could be spent on schools and hospitals at a time of desperate need. Instead it will go to providing Harrison a life of unimagined luxury at our expense. It is people like Harrison who are ripping off the benefits system, to the tune of millions, whilst disabled people or single parents are pilloried in the press. You couldn’t make it up.

'Back to work' tsar at centre of fraud probe over claims 'funding went on jobs lasting just a day'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-21...o=feeds-newsxml

The company run by David Cameron’s ‘Back to Work Tsar’ Emma Harrison is at the centre of a fraud investigation.

The Department for Work and Pensions confirmed last night that a probe into A4e – headed by Mrs Harrison – was under way.

A source at the company told The Mail on Sunday that on Friday afternoon, officers from Thames Valley Police visited the company’s offices in Slough, Berkshire.

The source said they stayed for up to four hours and demanded staff hand over documents and computer files dating back two years. He confirmed: ‘Police were in the office on Friday going back over contracts.’

The source added that police had indicated they planned to make further visits to other A4e offices throughout the country.

It is also the source’s understanding that the police were investigating claims that the company had put some people in jobs for just one day, but claimed the funding nonetheless.

It is believed that Work and Pensions Minister Chris Grayling was last night made aware of the investigation into A4e.

The company is majority-owned by Mrs Harrison, who has made millions from running her work programmes under both Labour and the Conservatives.

Last week it was revealed that she had been paid an £8.6 million dividend after A4e’s turnover rose to £234 million.

The disclosure that A4e is being investigated for alleged fraud will be an embarrassment for Mr Cameron.
'Posh commune': Emma Harrisons home Thornbridge Hall in Derbyshire which she shares with friends

'Posh commune': Emma Harrisons home Thornbridge Hall in Derbyshire which she shares with friends

Last year, he appointed Mrs Harrison as his ‘Families Champion’, giving her responsibility for getting problem families back into work.

Mrs Harrison, 48 – who is reportedly worth £70 million – is chairman of A4e, a global multi-million-pound training company. She was once jobless before she drove A4e from a small company set up to retrain redundant Sheffield steelworkers to an operation spanning 11 countries.

The firm has received Government contracts worth millions of pounds over the past 20 years.
Mrs Harrison with her husband Jim

Mrs Harrison lives with her husband Jim and their four children – two boys and two girls – in Thornbridge Hall, a Grade II listed 12th Century mansion. It is an opulent ten-bedroom property set in a 100-acre estate in Derbyshire.

They share their home with 11 close friends and the six children they have between them. Mrs Harrison has reportedly described the set-up as a ‘posh commune’.

After completing an engineering degree at Bradford University, she joined her father’s training company but eventually set up her own firm, Action For Employment, in 1991 to provide redundant steelworkers with training to find new jobs.

Multi-million-pound government contracts followed for the Sheffield-based company. In the year to March 2011, A4e’s turnover rose from £190 million to £234 million. Pre-tax profits rose by £5.5 million to £15 million.

Mrs Harrison has appeared on a number of television programmes, once trying to find worthy causes to help on a council estate in Dagenham for Channel 4’s The Secret Millionaire.

In 2010, A4e featured in two episodes of the series Benefit Busters and earlier this year she was on screen again, guiding four celebrities in the BBC1 reality series Famous, Rich And Jobless.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said: ‘We cannot comment any further on an ongoing investigation.’ But a source said that the probe related to fraud.

Thames Valley Police said it was unable to either confirm or deny whether A4e’s Slough premises had been visited by its officers.

A spokesperson for A4e said: ‘If there are any allegations or investigations of fraud in any of our activities, we will co-operate fully with the DWP and also anything referred to the police.

‘We have a zero-tolerance policy of fraud in A4e.’
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Emma Harrison is the unacceptable face of Capitalism. A parasite who profits off the misery and desperation of the poor, the needy, the under-classes... It's really quite surprising how critical the Daily Mail has been of late concerning the likes of A4e and Tesco, considering they and the other Tabloids created the mood and atmosphere that exists in the country against the "undeserving poor" that has led us into a situation where opportunist scum like Harrison can feed off the life-blood of the unemployed and give them false hope, while at the same time scamming the tax-payer by delivering a shoddy service. Perhaps a sign that things are changing...?

A4e's target for success was apparently 30%, which is a shockingly low set of standards anyway, but even this they spectacularly FAILED to achieve, delivering only a 9% success rate in finding people jobs. And the Government seems to think that this pathetic, piss-poor record is reason enough to give them even more lucrative Govt contracts... While at the same time Harrison pockets an 8 million "bonus" for this shocking rate of failure... It's kind of making the argument surrounding Stephen Hester's bonus seem pretty small beer by comparison, isn't it..? Look at the pictures of how she lives, look at the oppulence... This is YOUR taxes here...

This scandal surrounding possible fraud at A4e along with the controversy surrounding Tesco, Poundland, Matalan and others, surely leaves the Govt's "back to work" policy in complete and utter tatters.... There is no dignity or opportunity for anyone in these schemes, they are just a means by which the Government can fudge the unemployment stats and people like Emma Harrison to make money off the misery of others. Emma Harrison and her ilk are a bit like Dickensians Work House operators....




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GRIMLY FIENDISH
post Feb 19 2012, 10:18 PM
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I hope one day she is dragged through the courts on Human Rights violations which her corrupt swindling Empire is all built upon. Then I hope she is incarcerated and made to sew mail bags all day long until her fingers bleed whilst lots of people all gather around to tell her how f***ing lucky she is.

culpae poenae par esto
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russt68
post Feb 22 2012, 11:49 PM
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I'm not a fan of A4E or Emma Harrison - but..... as someone who works in a training centre that sees these people day in day out, are you telling me that 9% into work is a POOR achievement? I think you need to wake up and stop talking from your ivory tower.

We're in RECESSION. We have an unprecedented FORTY, yes FORTY per cent of people coming through our doors who CANNOT read and write. So to get even one of these people into ANY type of work is a massive achievement.

We deal with an alarming number of people who have absolutely NOTHING to put on a CV... that's NO training, NO work, NO college, NO qualifications. The ONLY way to ensure these people eventually get into some sort of work is through running through what most of us would consider incredibly basic sets of training - and yes, some of that training DOES include work experience. And thank God it does - it eases people into work, through a side door if you like, and very often the company who take the person on a work experience scheme do actually take them on..... if the person bothers to attend. For the record, over half the people who undertake work experience simply don't turn up - regardless of whether there is a job at the end of that work experience (which is often just 2 or 4 weeks - often standard when doing a work trial anyway).

Jobseekers Allowance isn't a given right. It's not something the state simply 'owes' jobseekers. When you sign on, you're signing a contract agreeing to do whatever it takes to find work or whatever it takes to get you trained up to become employable and work ready.

And are you trying to tell me teaching people to read and write, placing them in environments where they may be working for the first time in their lives (often in their 40s and 50s) and trying to break the hideous cycle of 'claiming' (often 3rd and 4th generations of a family where usually NOBODY has ever worked) is a BAD thing?

Wake up, Scott.
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Suedehead2
post Feb 23 2012, 12:07 AM
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The idea that there are large numbers of families where nobody has worked for generations is a myth. Yes, there are a few cases, but the numbers are tiny.

One of the problems with A4e (apart from the stupid name which sounds like a paper size) is that all their work is for the public sector. They have no private clients at all. At least the likes of Capita work in both sectors. Harrison is pocketing huge sums of money courtesy of the taxpayer without actually taking any risks at all.
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russt68
post Feb 23 2012, 08:07 AM
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QUOTE(Suedehead2 @ Feb 23 2012, 12:07 AM) *
The idea that there are large numbers of families where nobody has worked for generations is a myth. Yes, there are a few cases, but the numbers are tiny.


No, it isn't. As I stated, I work for a company delivering training for Work Programme... and I can assure you, the people we see through our doors who have never ever worked almsot ALWAYS come from families where their parents, grandparents have never worked either.
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GRIMLY FIENDISH
post Feb 23 2012, 08:22 AM
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QUOTE(russt68 @ Feb 22 2012, 11:49 PM) *
I'm not a fan of A4E or Emma Harrison - but..... as someone who works in a training centre that sees these people day in day out, are you telling me that 9% into work is a POOR achievement? I think you need to wake up and stop talking from your ivory tower.

We're in RECESSION. We have an unprecedented FORTY, yes FORTY per cent of people coming through our doors who CANNOT read and write. So to get even one of these people into ANY type of work is a massive achievement.

We deal with an alarming number of people who have absolutely NOTHING to put on a CV... that's NO training, NO work, NO college, NO qualifications. The ONLY way to ensure these people eventually get into some sort of work is through running through what most of us would consider incredibly basic sets of training - and yes, some of that training DOES include work experience. And thank God it does - it eases people into work, through a side door if you like, and very often the company who take the person on a work experience scheme do actually take them on..... if the person bothers to attend. For the record, over half the people who undertake work experience simply don't turn up - regardless of whether there is a job at the end of that work experience (which is often just 2 or 4 weeks - often standard when doing a work trial anyway).

Jobseekers Allowance isn't a given right. It's not something the state simply 'owes' jobseekers. When you sign on, you're signing a contract agreeing to do whatever it takes to find work or whatever it takes to get you trained up to become employable and work ready.

And are you trying to tell me teaching people to read and write, placing them in environments where they may be working for the first time in their lives (often in their 40s and 50s) and trying to break the hideous cycle of 'claiming' (often 3rd and 4th generations of a family where usually NOBODY has ever worked) is a BAD thing?

Wake up, Scott.


Err, excuse me, the story is actually about a FRAUD when all is said and done..... And I've been talking to people who have been on A4e schemes, not a single person has anything positive to say about them. At all... Biggest complaint is a total lack of basic resources, access to computers, etc... A4e aren't "teaching" anyone jack-shit.... They are however asbolutely brilliant at hoovering up vast sums of tax-payers' money it seems...

And the fact of the matter is, they were set a target (to get 'x%' of people who go onto their programs into some kind of work), they failed, and Emma f***ing Harrison believes that entitles her to an £8 million bonus at the tax-payer's expense.... f*** that....

I'm all for Employment Programs, but they actually have to DELIVER a good quality service and actually help people, otherwise it's all pointless, there are some very good ones out there and I have no arguement with those, but A4e are simply abysmal, and them being offered even more lucrative Govt contracts is an insult to the intelligence. It's all very well for you to say "oh, a lot of these people cant read and write and have never worked", yeah, well, a mate of mine with 10 YEARS work experience and was made redundant through no fault of his own, he went on one of their bullshit "programmes", they did precisely sweet FA for him and he saw the whole exercise as a complete waste of energy and time.. Ironically, he managed to get a job off his own back just replying to a recruitment ad in the local paper not long after his 4-week "programme" ended..... A4e did nothing for him except possibly delay him getting into work by about a month....
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GRIMLY FIENDISH
post Feb 23 2012, 08:25 AM
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QUOTE(Suedehead2 @ Feb 23 2012, 12:07 AM) *
The idea that there are large numbers of families where nobody has worked for generations is a myth. Yes, there are a few cases, but the numbers are tiny.

One of the problems with A4e (apart from the stupid name which sounds like a paper size) is that all their work is for the public sector. They have no private clients at all. At least the likes of Capita work in both sectors. Harrison is pocketing huge sums of money courtesy of the taxpayer without actually taking any risks at all.


Precisely... Anyone would think she was a bloody banker..... rolleyes.gif

Oh, hang on, the chiefs of the publically owned banks actually turned their bonuses for failure down in the face of public pressure... No bloody chance of "All 4 Emma" doing the same, is there....? She's a disgrace, and frankly seeing as how we stripped Fred Goodwin of his "honour", perhaps we should be considering the same with Harrison...
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post Feb 24 2012, 11:29 PM
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...And here we have The Guardian exposing another enemy of the working classes.... Avanta....

Jobseekers forced to clean private homes and offices for nothing

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/fe...P=FBCNETTXT9038

Unpaid jobseekers have been forced to clean private homes and offices for more than a month at a time under government employment schemes, despite mounting evidence that the controversial policy is reducing the overall availability of paid work by replacing temporary jobs and overtime for other staff.

A succession of high street shops have pulled out of the schemes this week amid criticism that using unpaid labour to carry out routine tasks such as filling shelves amounts to a public subsidy for employers, but the practice extends far beyond the retail industry.

The Guardian has now discovered through a freedom of information request that a major government contractor, Avanta, has compelled jobseekers to work as unpaid cleaners in houses, flats, offices and council premises under the work programme.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has previously stated that all mandatory schemes must be for "community benefit". However, under government rules, this can be defined as increasing the profit of organisations where the unemployed are sent to work without pay.

Avanta has said that its schemes are not mandatory, but like all back-to-work companies involved in the work programme, it is able to refer jobseekers back to the job centre for sanctions.

Rebecca Fagan, a manager at DC Property Maintenance in Sussex, said that it had been sent "loads" of jobseekers from Avanta during the last two years. "They normally come for four weeks and they are put with other team members," she said.

The unpaid work involves cleaning houses and flats in the Sussex area as well as offices. When asked if they were job shadowing, she replied that "they are actually doing" cleaning.

Over the last two years she said that she had had 20-25 unpaid cleaners through the work programme and the previous new deal scheme. According to Fagan, the firm, which employs 18 full-time staff including those in head office, had hired six or seven during those two years.

"It gets them back into work," she said. She added that the firm had been passed four to five jobseekers in the last six months alone, usually for four weeks at a time. "Sometimes we ask the job centre or local scheme if they want to extend that four weeks if we think we really want to employ them but it is not the right time." She confirmed that even when the placements were extended they were still not paid.

"We find it the best way to see how people work when on jobs," she said. "Most of them, you find that they are eager to get back into the workplace. They are really trying to get back into a job. Some, you can tell they are doing it for the sake of keeping their benefits."

She added that her other staff were happy and did not believe it was replacing other shifts.

A second company, Town and Country Cleaners, confirmed it also used unpaid cleaners sent by Avanta, but could not provide further details.

Responding to questions about why it was sending jobseekers to get work experience as cleaners, Avanta said: "Our approach is to work closely with our customers to understand the type of job that they are looking for and create a personalised package of support that will enable them to get a job with long-term prospects … We provide a broad range of placements with employers from different business sectors.

"We work with many employers who have recruited staff following work experience placements and we believe that work experience is a vital tool in helping long-term unemployed people find work."

Nonetheless, evidence sent to a government committee suggests some employers have been replacing temporary staff and taking away overtime hours.

Minutes from the social security advisory committee, an official and impartial body set up to advise the DWP on welfare policy, suggest evidence had already surfaced by December that employers were using unpaid schemes to fill seasonal vacancies.

"Many retail jobs required staff to work for 16 hours each week, with overtime payable for any hours worked beyond that. Work experience allowed for 25 hours work activity, so overtime to permanent staff was being reduced or removed," the minutes noted. "There was also evidence to suggest that work experience placements were being taken on to cover Christmas vacancies."

A DWP official told the committee that Jobcentre Plus required employers to sign a declaration confirming no jobs would be displaced through participation in the work experience scheme, but said the department was "working with other stakeholders to explore what more it could do to protect against that".

More than 34,000 young people have started unpaid job placements of up to eight weeks under the work experience programme. The scheme is voluntary, but anyone terminating their placement early can face sanctions, including a stop on their benefits for between two and 26 weeks.

The committee's chair, Paul Gray, ended the session by asking the DWP to take further action to prevent work experience roles taking over paid jobs: "He said that the committee had voiced some serious concerns around the potential for exploitation of the work experience scheme and considered it important for the department to look at how it can further strengthen the safeguards that had been put in place," the official minutes note.

The same committee had also, earlier in 2011, warned the government against proceeding with another scheme introducing compulsory work placements for some jobseekers. The government proceeded with the mandatory work activity programme regardless, saying it expected no more than around 10,000 jobseekers a year to be compelled to do work placements under the programme. The latest figures record 8,100 people were placed on to the scheme in November 2011 alone.

Poundland became the latest employer to pull out or amend its participation in the government's work schemes on Friday, when it issued a statement stating it was suspending "participation in the government's mandatory work programme" but continuing to take people on voluntary work experience.

It later clarified that it was pulling out of the work programme, a government scheme administered by private companies, owing to concerns about whether places were voluntary.

"Poundland have been taking part in two schemes, the work programme and the work experience scheme," it said in a statement. "Poundland has suspended its participation in the work programme, because of concerns about the compulsory nature of the programme but they are continuing with the work experience, which is voluntary."

Several other companies, including Waterstones, Sainsbury's and TK Maxx, have withdrawn from the work experience scheme, while Tesco now offers jobseekers the choice of sticking with the government programme or taking up paid work with a guarantee of a staff job at the end of a four-week placement if the trial was successful.

As Poundland withdraw from the Work Programme scheme citing compulsory placements as a cause for concern, the Guardian has uncovered more evidence about the behaviour of the companies administering scheme.

Earlier this week the Guardian reported that A4E, one of the biggest provider of the scheme, had compelled jobseekers to work unpaid in its own offices, as the police launched an official investigation into allegations of fraudulent business practices at the company. A4E's founder, Emma Harrison, has subsequently stepped down as David Cameron's "families tsar" and from the board of A4E.

The chair of the Social Security Advisory Committee declined to comment.

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post Feb 25 2012, 09:21 AM
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17113209

Listen VERY closely to this interview with Dave's Knob Polisher....oh, sorry, that was meant to read "Deputy Prime Minister".... Nick Clegg.... He appears to say "..every 18-24 year old c/unt...in the country who's out of work". WOW, talk about having complete and utter contempt for an entire generation of young people (including tens of thousands of University Graduates) who are currently jobless because of a situation that's far more to do with what POLITCIANS AND BANKERS did, than any "fault" at all on the part of the ordinary person. Now, I know that many of the people on Buzzjack are in this age bracket, and probably a fair few of you are unemployed, so, how do you feel about the Deputy Prime Dick Sucker calling you all "c/unts"....?

IF you ask me, the only "c'unt" here is Nick Clegg, mainly of the Lying, Two-faced, Cowardly yellow streak of piss variety..... But no, that's unfair... Unfair to the female reproductive organ which, unlike Clegg, actually has warmth, depth and an actual use to humanity... I rather describe Nick Clegg as an "arse" because he's so full of shit..... sleep.gif

And how do you like this for a bit of Stalin-esque revisionism......

DWP Rewrite History – Mandatory Work Disappears from the Work Programme Provider’s Guidance
http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2012/02/24...iders-guidance/

t’s rare that something comes along which can be described as truly Orwellian, but this government hasn’t disappointed. The sheer desperation of Chris Grayling can be revealed in this document, which is the providers guidance for the Work Programme workfare scheme. As mentioned recently, this document contains the pronouncement that:

“Where you are providing support for JSA participants, which is work experience you must mandate participants to this activity. This is to avoid the National Minimum Wage Regulations, which will apply if JSA participants are not mandated.”

Which can be seen in this screenshot:

Unfortunately for the DWP this is from google cache, something their no doubt highly skilled IT professionals presumably haven’t heard of. It can be viewed here.

Unfortunately it can no longer be viewed on the DWP’s website, as that particular phrase, which proves Chris Grayling was a lying bast*rd when he claimed there was no Mandatory workfare in the Work Programme, appears to have disappeared: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/wp-pg-chapter-3.pdf

Truly desperate stuff from a truly desperate government. Not content with lying through their teeth about workfare, it now seems that Chris Grayling and Iain Duncan Smith are attempting to rewrite government documents to cover up their fibs.

Perhaps the DWP got hacked by the Socialist Worker Party along with Grayling’s email account.
---------------------------------------------------------------

*COUGH COUGH* The bit in bold is important.... So, now we know the reasons for mandating the schemes that were related to Poundland and others, it's all in order to avoid the Statutory Minimum Wage requirements.... Which could actually be avoided anyway by people doing VOLUNTEER work for charities, which was kind of the sort of thing Cait Reilly was doing at a Museum (and not only that, something actually related to her degree in Geology) before she was dragged off to stack shelves and clean toilets in Poundland for NO PAY or any work-related benefits... I think it very interesting that Russ here tries to justify these schemes by saying they alledgedly teach people necessary skills .. Seems to me that, given Cait Reilly WAS actually doing work experience and DID actually pass a university degree (which would presumably have involved a lot of reading and writing) just why on earth she was carted off to a mandatory work scheme and treated like an idiot.. And she's very far from being the only one in this particular situation. What on earth do University Graduates (the vast majority of whom do part-time work during their courses) or people who have been in the work-place for years but find themselves unemployed because of the recession actually need to go on a f***ing "workfare" scheme for to teach them shit they already know....? Oh, hang on, I get it, if they go on them, hey, they dont turn up on the unemployment stats do the....? AHHHHH, it all becomes clear...... rolleyes.gif
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post Feb 25 2012, 10:36 AM
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...and in more A4e-related news....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-21...o=feeds-newsxml

'Champagne and forged signatures': Former employer tells how jobless were asked to sign blank timesheets at back-to-work tsar's firm

Hours before Emma Harrison’s resignation as head of A4e, an ex-employee broke cover to paint a devastating picture of a company where corruption was ‘utterly rife’.

Tracie Spiers, 44, said staff members ‘routinely’ forged signatures on documents and champagne was handed out as an incentive to do well.

Several whistleblowers from around the country had already told the Mail about dubious practices at A4e while asking to retain their anonymity.
A former employee at A4e has revealed how corruption at Emma Harrison's firm was 'utterly rife'

A former employee at A4e has revealed how corruption at Emma Harrison's firm was 'utterly rife'

But Miss Spiers was prepared to be named.

The mother of two worked for the company in 2009 at its office in Slough, Berkshire – currently at the centre of police fraud inquiries.

She claimed jobless clients were asked to sign blank timesheets ‘every single Friday’, and that some of her colleagues wrote bogus signatures on forms to help them meet their targets.

A4e earned a £2,000 bounty from the Government for getting someone off the dole. Miss Spiers, from Twickenham, south-west London, said: ‘There was one colleague who used to forge signatures on the forms to pretend someone had got a job when they hadn’t. They would fake the signature of an “employer” for a job that didn’t exist. I was once asked to write one.

‘I was sitting at this person’s desk and they said, “Oh Trace, can you do this signature for me?” I’m left-handed. I couldn’t forge a signature if I tried. I refused, saying, “I’m not getting involved in this”. They found someone else to do it.’ Miss Spiers said one manager used to come into the office bearing a bottle of champagne in each hand as rewards for staff who had done well. ‘The bottles would be lined up in the office. It was an incentive to get more jobs put through the system.’

The unemployed were sent on A4e’s back-to-work courses as a condition of receiving their state benefits. The firm received government money for each person on its courses.

Miss Spiers said A4e advisers routinely faked timesheets to show someone had attended the course all week, even if they had not.

‘Filling in the timesheets was very time-consuming. Some of the client advisers would get people to sign blank sheets, and the adviser would fill them out later.

‘The managers were saying, “Just get them done, timesheets are money”. Each one was worth £400 to the company, and there were hundreds of them every week.

‘Some clients used to drift in and out and you just knew that they weren’t going to stay all week.

'There was no way you could get them done properly in time, so we just had to make them up.'

‘The client advisers were under such pressure. On Friday afternoon, you had 30 clients’ timesheets to complete and each one took about five to ten minutes. There was no way you could get them done properly in time, so we just had to make them up. It was much quicker to get somebody to sign a blank form and then fill it in later saying they had been in attendance all week, even if they hadn’t.’

Now unemployed, Miss Spiers said she had decided to expose the ‘hypocrisy’ of A4e’s claims that the alleged fraud was confined to a few individuals.

She left the firm in November 2009 and says she wrote to one of the managers alerting him to timesheets and ‘job outcomes’ being signed off falsely.

‘He replied saying they had carried out an internal investigation and had found my claims were unfounded,’ she said. ‘But it was utterly rife there.’

Asked about Miss Spiers’s claims, A4e said: ‘We cannot comment on these allegations during an ongoing police investigation.’
-----------------------------------------------------

Wide-scale systemic corruption within A4e. This "organisation" deserves to be brought down. Any and all contracts with this bunch of crooks and charlatans should be immediately voided, as it is pretty damn clear to anyone with a brain, that A4e are guilty of Fraudulent Misrepresentation... As well as actual Fraud...

A friend of mine who has been on one of A4e's piece of crap "schemes" posted this on Facebook...

"I saw this kind of behavior and practice first hand when I was forced to attend a4e in the early 2000's and it IS rife within the industry, not just a4e, it goes on in the offices of most other training providers too.

Quite often a member of staff will pose as a prospective employer to interview the client and then say the clients got the bogus job just so they then claim their bonus.

The whole thing was a lucrative and fraudulent scam at taxpayers expense, and did little for the vulnerable people forced there apart from bully and harass them with threats.

In the 6 months I was chained up by a4e, I'd say they dealt with approximately 100 clients out of which only 3 actually escaped their clutches by getting a job. Out of those three, one which would have got their job outcome from previous contacts whether they were sent to a4e or not, one was was an ex-con and which they were desperate to get out of the office before other people learnt of what he was actually convicted for, and the other one actually got the job within the company itself by sleeping with the manager and not before they had given 6 months free labour to them first"

When the DWP referred me to a4e I was told there would be courses and training there in things like Web Design, Desktop Publishing and an extensive range of computer courses and indeed was on a4e's promotional blurb which I was handed by my client adviser.

When I got there, the reality was there were 6 workstations with no software on, no staff qualified to instruct in such subjects(most of them were struggling with Microsoft Office and didn't even understand Windows) and the computers themselves were not internet capable nor indeed had graphics chips fitted for 2 months(so everything on them was an ugly 8 bit colour) and had no software installed on them other than Windows.

So for the first two months I was required to report to this building for 30 hours a week to read the newspapers cover to cover several times over and look out of the window on the 13th floor and contemplate all of the jobs I could have been applying for if I were at home with my internet connection and computer which actually works instead.

I complained after the third week at my Job Centre and was told that I would have to grin and bear it there for 6 months otherwise risk a benefit sanction.
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Suedehead2
post Feb 25 2012, 01:29 PM
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QUOTE(GRIMLY FIENDISH @ Feb 25 2012, 09:21 AM) *
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17113209

Listen VERY closely to this interview with Dave's Knob Polisher....oh, sorry, that was meant to read "Deputy Prime Minister".... Nick Clegg.... He appears to say "..every 18-24 year old c/unt...in the country who's out of work". WOW, talk about having complete and utter contempt for an entire generation of young people (including tens of thousands of University Graduates) who are currently jobless because of a situation that's far more to do with what POLITCIANS AND BANKERS did, than any "fault" at all on the part of the ordinary person. Now, I know that many of the people on Buzzjack are in this age bracket, and probably a fair few of you are unemployed, so, how do you feel about the Deputy Prime Dick Sucker calling you all "c/unts"....?

That was clearly a slip of the tongue so stop trying to stir up trouble when their isn't any.

If you want to know what ministers think of their opponents just look at what Tory ministers have been saying recently.

Employment minister Chris Grayling (the man who was Shadow Home Secretary before the election and ended up as a junior minister after defending the B&B owners who turned away a gay couple) has said that the campaign against his slave labour schemes is a front for the Socialist Workers Party and communists. That slur was repeated by another Tory MP on the BBC today. He was not asked to provide any evidence.

This follows Gove describing opponents of his academy schools programme as Trots and the extraordinarily dim Sayeeda Warsi banging on about "militant secularists". Not to mention Lansley also labelling opponents of his NHS legislation (i.e. almost the entire country) as militants.

Maybe one day ministers will engage in mature, intelligent argument but it doesn't look like happening any time soon.
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GRIMLY FIENDISH
post Feb 25 2012, 10:41 PM
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QUOTE(Suedehead2 @ Feb 25 2012, 01:29 PM) *
That was clearly a slip of the tongue so stop trying to stir up trouble when their isn't any.

If you want to know what ministers think of their opponents just look at what Tory ministers have been saying recently.

Employment minister Chris Grayling (the man who was Shadow Home Secretary before the election and ended up as a junior minister after defending the B&B owners who turned away a gay couple) has said that the campaign against his slave labour schemes is a front for the Socialist Workers Party and communists. That slur was repeated by another Tory MP on the BBC today. He was not asked to provide any evidence.

This follows Gove describing opponents of his academy schools programme as Trots and the extraordinarily dim Sayeeda Warsi banging on about "militant secularists". Not to mention Lansley also labelling opponents of his NHS legislation (i.e. almost the entire country) as militants.

Maybe one day ministers will engage in mature, intelligent argument but it doesn't look like happening any time soon.


Sometimes a "slip of the tongue" betrays what someone really thinks though... You can interpret it how you wish mate, I heard what I heard... Although I certainly wont argue with the rest of your examples..
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Suedehead2
post Feb 25 2012, 11:55 PM
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QUOTE(GRIMLY FIENDISH @ Feb 25 2012, 10:41 PM) *
Sometimes a "slip of the tongue" betrays what someone really thinks though... You can interpret it how you wish mate, I heard what I heard... Although I certainly wont argue with the rest of your examples..

I'm not disputing that he said it. I'm just making different assumptions. He was clearly expecting the question he was answering (if he wasn't then he's exceptionally stupid) and was - in my view - parroting a pre-prepared answer. He just made a hash of it and stumbled over his words.

Of course, if you want to see it as a Freudian slip, that's up to you.

My other examples, on the other hand, seem to be a coordinated plan by Tory ministers to slur their opponents. It's not hard to imagine how the Tory press would have reacted if Labour ministers had ever adopted the same tactics.
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GRIMLY FIENDISH
post Feb 26 2012, 08:59 AM
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QUOTE(Suedehead2 @ Feb 25 2012, 11:55 PM) *
I'm not disputing that he said it. I'm just making different assumptions. He was clearly expecting the question he was answering (if he wasn't then he's exceptionally stupid) and was - in my view - parroting a pre-prepared answer. He just made a hash of it and stumbled over his words.

Of course, if you want to see it as a Freudian slip, that's up to you.

My other examples, on the other hand, seem to be a coordinated plan by Tory ministers to slur their opponents. It's not hard to imagine how the Tory press would have reacted if Labour ministers had ever adopted the same tactics.


You seem to defend Nick Clegg FAR more than you would any other Tory (and let's make no mistake here, Clegg is a "Yellow Tory" who has f**ked the Lib Dems and who f**ked the only chance we ever had for electoral reform since the 1930s by accepting a pissy compromise and choosing to let the Sca-Moron dictate the terms and when the referendum was run), why is that?
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post Feb 26 2012, 10:06 AM
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...And here we have a typical Tory reaction to what is clearly PUBLIC outrage... Blame the Socialist Worker Party.... "Reds Under the Beds" Version 2.0... Obviously Andrew Neil and Jeremy Paxman are fully paid-up members of SWP as well....


Tories order police to halt workfare demos as MP makes formal protest to BBC over bias in favour of hard-Left militants


A police crackdown on anti-capitalist extremists who invade shops to sabotage the Government’s work experience programme has been ordered by Ministers.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has asked the police to act amid growing fears in Whitehall that the protesters’ wrecking tactics are succeeding.

Burger King yesterday became the latest major company to withdraw from the Welfare-to-work scheme after claims that it amounts to ‘slave labour’.

Last week, a Tesco store in Westminster was forced to close after it was targeted by Left-wing activists bearing placards accusing the firm of ‘exploitation’.

Mr Duncan Smith believes retailers are not getting enough protection and, after raising the matter with Home Secretary Theresa May, asked the police to get tough.

He said: ‘We have asked the police to be more pro-active. If they receive intelligence that a shop is to be invaded they should stop it happening. And if a shop has been invaded, retailers need to know that they can call on the police to eject them. It is illegal to prevent people going about their normal business.’

The aim of the scheme is to place young people on Jobseeker’s Allowance in work experience for up to eight weeks to help make them more ‘marketable’ to employers.


It is voluntary and those taking part have a week to pull out of a placement if they feel it is not right for them. However, if they withdraw without good reason after that stage, benefits can be withdrawn.

So far, more than 34,000 jobseekers have volunteered for work experience stints of up to two months, and about half have stopped claiming benefits as a result.

The decision to send in the police came as Tory MP Priti Patel made a formal protest to the BBC, accusing it of being biased in favour of the protest led by the Left-wing Right To Work organisation.

She claimed BBC 2 Newsnight had ‘spent all week putting solitary Government Ministers up against panels made up of the hard Left’.

And fellow Conservative Philip Davies said: ‘Burger King are spineless. They have caved into pressure from a small band of hard-Left militants.’

Critics claim many of the job placements are for ‘worthless’ shelf-stacking roles – but Ministers point out that Burger King was offering youngsters white-collar work experience at its office HQ.

The Right To Work group has close links with the Socialist Workers’ Party and Ministers say it is using ‘sinister’ methods.

They claim agitators were responsible for flooding the website Mumsnet with abusive messages attacking firms involved in the scheme, such as Tesco.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling, who devised the scheme, says he has fresh evidence to back up his claim that ‘fake activity’ by a ‘small number’ of Socialist-linked activists is driving the campaign.

He says that hours after he repeated the claim on the BBC last week, he was bombarded with dozens of emails, using almost identical wording, from campaigners. They all ‘protested in the strongest possible terms’ against his claim that the Right to Work campaign was a front for the Socialist Workers’ Party.

The emails all say: ‘I am not, and never have been, associated in any way with the Socialist Workers’ Party – or indeed any other Left-wing political group.’

Sources say David Cameron is ‘determined’ to rescue the scheme and is ‘livid’ at the BBC’s role. On Tuesday’s Newsnight, Tory MP Harriett Baldwin was put up against three critics who had experience of workfare schemes.

Jeremy Paxman asked Baldwin four times: ‘Do you understand why people find the schemes offensive?’

And on Thursday, presenter Kirsty Wark said: ‘It’s just essentially cheap labour.’

On Friday morning’s Today programme, Evan Davis said: ‘The amount you are going to learn stacking shelves is not going to be very great – it’s been over-sold. What do you learn when you go and do work experience in supermarkets?’

Then Friday evening’s Newsnight – following a filmed report which poured scorn on the Government’s claims that the protest campaign was being pushed by social media manipulation – put a Tory MP up against another panel of three critics.

And Paul Callanan, representing Youth Fight for Jobs and Education, was asked whether the campaigners were a front for socialism.

He said: ‘I am a member of the Socialist Party’, adding: ‘The reason socialists are taking up this issue is because it’s a symptom of a capitalist system that is utterly corrupt, rotten to the core.’

The Tories have also questioned the role played by the Left-wing Guardian newspaper.

It has offered blanket, supportive coverage of the Right to Work’s campaigns, with many pieces written by Left-wing activist Shiv Malik.

Mr Malik, 30, has been a controversial figure for more than a decade. Just six days after the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers in 2001, he wrote: ‘The world has gone crazy, 5,000 businessmen and military personnel die and suddenly we are at war. With whom? More people die each day from starvation or bad water as a result of IMF loans.’

In 2008, police raided Mr Malik’s North London home to search for interviews he carried out with Hassan Butt, a former Muslim extremist arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences. Butt was later released without charge.
The reason socialists are taking up this issue is because it’s a symptom of a capitalist system that is utterly corrupt, rotten to the core.
- PAUL CALLANAN


Mr Malik, who was writing a biography of Butt, won a High Court battle to keep the material confidential. In 2010, Mr Malik was caught up in violent student protests against tuition fees, and described being struck on the head by a police baton. He wrote: ‘I felt a big whacking thud and I heard it reverberating inside my head. There was blood everywhere.’

Mr Malik has posted dozens of messages on Twitter over the past week attacking Welfare-to-work.

Ironically, the Guardian has itself been accused of ‘exploiting’ unpaid work experience students.

The newspaper is currently advertising on its website: ‘A limited number of short work experience opportunities throughout the year to those dedicated to a career in journalism. Placements are unpaid and range in duration from a few days to a maximum of two weeks.’

Mumsnet appears to have been one of the main targets of the campaigners. Its mothers’ internet forum has been bombarded with postings critical of Tesco and the work experience, many aggressively militant in tone and language.

One ‘strand’, which was started on February 16 and now has more than 1,000 posts, is headlined: ‘Tesco should f***ing well PAY THEIR STAFF’ and includes lines such as ‘why the f***ing f*** should Tesco get their staff for free? Why?’ Another, left by someone calling themselves ‘Norman Tebbit’, reads: ‘Tesco are absolute f***ers.’ Mumsnet is run by Justine Roberts – the wife of Ian Katz, the Guardian’s deputy editor. Ms Roberts did not respond to calls. Right to Work started in 2009 as a campaign against public service cuts, with the Socialist Workers’ Party boasting that it had ‘initiated the campaign’.

An early rally in May 2010 was dominated by SWP members. Right to Work is currently led by bus driver Paul Brandon, a representative for the Left-wing Unite union, and its registered address is the home of SWP boss Charlie Kimber.

Right to Work’s spokesman, Mark Dunk, is an unemployed activist whose Facebook page has as its profile picture the slogan: ‘All out! Stay out!’

The BBC said: ‘It is impossible to respond to a complaint before it has been received, however we are comfortable that our coverage of this issue has been fair and impartial.’
---------------------------------------------------

Yeah, great idea, just close off people's legitimate rights to protest and to exercise consumer boycott action or "sit in" protests.. That wont cause more riots on the streets or anything..... sleep.gif Oh, and Grayling of course mentions the "big bad" Internet/Social Networking Bogey-man again.... Why is it that when the powers-that-be use the net or social networking (for example David Cameron before the election) to their advantage, all is fine and dandy, but when ordinary people use it to get active, spread awareness and get organised, it all of a sudden becomes something "sinister"......? Methinks there really isn't that much difference in terms of rhetoric between this Govt and the ex-Egyptian or Chinese Govts in how they view the Internet or Social Networking...
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Suedehead2
post Feb 26 2012, 12:12 PM
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QUOTE(GRIMLY FIENDISH @ Feb 26 2012, 08:59 AM) *
You seem to defend Nick Clegg FAR more than you would any other Tory (and let's make no mistake here, Clegg is a "Yellow Tory" who has f**ked the Lib Dems and who f**ked the only chance we ever had for electoral reform since the 1930s by accepting a pissy compromise and choosing to let the Sca-Moron dictate the terms and when the referendum was run), why is that?

I'm defending Clegg on this occasion because it was clearly a slip of the tongue.

I assume the new article you have posted is from the Mail. Perhaps Grayling could explain how a flood of similarly worded emails from people saying they are not - and never have been - members of the SWP somehow proves that it is an SWP-led campaign. This attempt by Tory ministers to discredit their opponents is getting quite scary. After all, it's the first time I've seen Mumsnet being described as a left wing from just because it's run by the wife of a Guardian journalist. Perhaps someone could explain why this same "left wing group" allowed such a fuss to be made about Gordon Brown's alleged refusal to answer a question about his favourite biscuit - a question he was never asked.
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Brett-Butler
post Feb 26 2012, 12:33 PM
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All I can add to this discussion is that as far as irrational, right-wing rage goes, the UK has nothing on Fox News. After their tour de force, accusing The Muppets of being communists, they're now claiming that the anime film Arrietty (a Japanese adaptation of The Borrowers) is indoctrinating children to join the Occupy movement.



You've got a lot to live up to, Mr Grayling.


This post has been edited by Brett-Butler: Feb 26 2012, 12:34 PM
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GRIMLY FIENDISH
post Feb 26 2012, 04:23 PM
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QUOTE(Brett-Butler @ Feb 26 2012, 12:33 PM) *
All I can add to this discussion is that as far as irrational, right-wing rage goes, the UK has nothing on Fox News. After their tour de force, accusing The Muppets of being communists, they're now claiming that the anime film Arrietty (a Japanese adaptation of The Borrowers) is indoctrinating children to join the Occupy movement.



You've got a lot to live up to, Mr Grayling.


Grayling certainly seems to be taking his cues from the Republicans though... There's plenty of reasons to criticise the film industry, The Muppets Movie and this are just ludicrous, I mean, one has only to look at the pressure they put on politicians to sign up to the SOPA and PIPA acts, one Hollywood mogul going so far as to say that he would stop contributing to the Democrats if Obama didnt sign SOPA into law, and let's not kid ourselves that the arrests of Kim Dotcom and others wern't as a result of pressure from MPAA and RIAA, far worse crimes go unpunished on Wall St.....
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post Feb 26 2012, 08:14 PM
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Ok, so Mr Cameron and your lovely political party let me get this straight. Because I do not agree that people should be forced to work for free or lose their jobseekers allowance during the middle of a global recession that your party is making worse and I think that places like a4e are shoddy scams defrauding me of money that should be reclaimed (along with the backdated tax from Vodafone et al please) I am a hard-left socialist and and effectively the devil?


I fail to believe people with that little intelligence managed to get elected and are running this country. Your scare tactics will not work in the Scottish referendum, keep acting the way you are and that Yes vote is going to be more or less unanimous.
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post Feb 26 2012, 09:01 PM
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QUOTE(Silas @ Feb 26 2012, 08:14 PM) *
I fail to believe people with that little intelligence managed to get elected and are running this country. Your scare tactics will not work in the Scottish referendum, keep acting the way you are and that Yes vote is going to be more or less unanimous.

I know this is a different point but I suspect that a YES vote is exactly what Cameron rather wants, after all he loses nothing politically in it (MP wise) and North Sea Oil will be carved up so he'll get a slice of that and makes future electoral victories in the remainder of the UK much more likely.
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